OCTOBER 31, 2008 FRIDAY
Prayer at 7:00 and the day began. We are trying to get prepared with the new member lessons for the couple that was going to be baptized tomorrow. We found out later today that something happened and they will not be baptized.
We were all excited about being able to teach a lesson and now we won’t have that opportunity, at least not yet.
The AP’s called this morning and wanted to come over to make final plans for our activity tomorrow. They and the DL’s arrived at 11:30 and we had our planning session. It seems everything is prepared and we should have a good time. We won’t be getting the corn syrup until Saturday morning, but it won’t be any problem getting the caramel made now because of the baptism we aren’t going to anymore. We’ll meet the Elders tonight at the church to organize where all the booths/activities will be so there won’t be any confusion tomorrow when everyone gets there. However, before going to the church they were going to go get some Kababs for dinner. We’ve heard the missionaries talk about how good Kababs are, but we haven’t seen or tried one so we’re going to go with them. I don’t remember there being any such thing when I was here on my first mission in 1963-65. After, we’ll go decorate and organize.
While the Elders were here, we gave them each a caramel apple for them to try. They liked them and also took some home with them. We set some chocolate out for them also and they ate most of it as well as some caramel pretzel sticks and some oranges. We don’t know how they stay so skinny.
There were still a few things we needed to get so we went out this afternoon to find them. We stopped at the church to see if they had a longer wooden spoon we could use to stir the caramel so I didn’t have to get my hand burned off stirring with the steam coming off the batch. There was a bigger spoon there and also a oven mitt I’ll be able to use. On the way back home we attempted to find one more less-active member to invite, but the address was not where we thought and there was no way to get to it in the amount of time we had. So we’ll find him another day, maybe tomorrow.
Well, the Kababs were good, but not dissimilar to the Subway sandwiches you can get at home. The difference is that here they are $9.50 for the cheap ones. We bought the Kababs and went back to the church to eat them because we didn’t want to stay in the shop. Too much smoke and we didn’t want to pick up that smell in our clothes. One more experience in this great country. Did we tell you it is cold here right now. Still a bit of snow on the ground and overcast all the time. We wish you folks at home could have a little of this rain/snow because we know you need it.
We spent a couple of hours decorating and it all came together pretty well. I don’t know if we told you of all the things/activities that will be going on so we’ll just list them here. Trunk or treat, bobbing for apples, musical chairs, eating donuts off a string (no hands), mummy wrap, eating contest (probably how many crackers you can eat in a minute with no water), darts game, guess how many candy pieces in a bottle (winner gets to keep the candy), melt the witch (throwing wet sponges at a chalk drawing to melt the witch), pin the wart on the witch, bean bag toss, caricature drawing (an Elder is a good artist and will draw caricature portraits of the kids), and last but not least, little kids put their hand in chalk (or something) and put their hand on black paper, turn it upside down and draw a face on their “ghost.” Thank goodness there are going to be 14 Elders there to man the different activities. Tomorrow morning we go to the church at (9:00 to make the caramel apples and finish decorating the cultural hall. There was a program going on in the chapel tonight so we couldn’t finish. We have heard that there will be a lot of non-members attending which is the point of this and almost every other activity. Everything is geared to missionary work. We need a CD player to play Halloween music/noise and We thought we had one in our little storage room. When we got home we looked for it and found it. It works great so we’ll use it tomorrow. Diana is now able to listen to German language CD’s and spent an hour tonight doing just that. Well, so much for today. Good Night.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
OCTOBER 30, 2008 THURSDAY
Prayer at 7:00 and the day starts. Since we have to get ready to make the caramel apples, we decided that we should make a test batch using the 500 ml (about 2 cups) of corn syrup that we found in the pantry. It worked out pretty well except we got the caramel a little too hard. We wanted to get it harder than softer, but we overdid it a little. That was why we called it a test batch. It covered 18 apples plus Diana got to do some of her pretzel sticks. About the time we got through with that the AP’s called and said they found the corn syrup in Stuttgard and Pres. Matern would be bringing it back with him on Friday. That must be good news but it means we’ll have to put our money where our mouth is. It shouldn’t be a problem and we’re thrilled we can bring a touch of America to the Swiss.
After that was done, we saddled up, so to speak, and went out finding and visiting even if there was a lot of slush on the ground. The sun did shine a little today which gives us hope for the Saturday Halloween thingy. I’ll be glad when that is over. Sis. Wachter wasn’t home so we left a little goody on her doorstep and also an invite to the Halloween party. Next we went to another less-active member’s home, but he wasn’t there. Another note and invitation. The last home we visited we found a sister home. She was barely able to get around and was very unsteady on her feet. Several times while we were there as she got up to do something, she almost fell over. She is a dear sweet sister. She is so sick and unstable physically that she can only get to church once in awhile. She showed us some pictures of their family and the missionaries she had in an album. She said before she got sick, the missionaries visited her all the time, but they didn’t anymore, that it had been six years and two months since she had a visit by the missionaries. She said that she had been praying that some would come and that we were the answer to her prayers. So we’ll put her on our once-a-month home/visit teaching list. We asked her if we could do anything for her and she immediately asked for a spiritual message. Her husband wasn’t home and she said he works in the Family History center twice a week at the stake center. The bishop calls him less-active because he only goes to church on Sundays once in awhile, but thinks he’s active.
On the way home we stopped off to get a few more things for Saturday and, besides, because we have to carry everything home on the tram, it seems like we’re always going to the store. At home you only had to go to the grocery store once a week or so. Here, it’s almost a daily occurrence because it’s hard to carry a lot of stuff at once. Also, Diana has wanted to get a few months supply of food storage just in case. Today we found big bottles of Heinz Ketchup on sale at half price. So now we have a years supply of Ketchup and a broken back from carrying it all home.
Tonight we made some phone calls to those we’ve visited who weren’t home or who didn’t live at the listed addresses. Two of the numbers I called someone answered, but the numbers belonged to different people now. Dead ends. I also called one sister who the bishop wanted us to contact to see if we could come visit. She said no we couldn’t because she didn’t want any more contact from the Church. She said she had returned to the Catholic church, the one she grew up in. No amount of coaxing helped. It’s always sad when this happens, especially when her daughter, who lives in our ward, is active and wanted us to visit her mother too. Well, that’s it for another day doing the greatest service on earth, at least for us right now.
We have been getting emails from our friends in our MTC session and it’s great to hear from them. The couples are scattered out all over the world. It’s an amazing thing to be a part of.
Prayer at 7:00 and the day starts. Since we have to get ready to make the caramel apples, we decided that we should make a test batch using the 500 ml (about 2 cups) of corn syrup that we found in the pantry. It worked out pretty well except we got the caramel a little too hard. We wanted to get it harder than softer, but we overdid it a little. That was why we called it a test batch. It covered 18 apples plus Diana got to do some of her pretzel sticks. About the time we got through with that the AP’s called and said they found the corn syrup in Stuttgard and Pres. Matern would be bringing it back with him on Friday. That must be good news but it means we’ll have to put our money where our mouth is. It shouldn’t be a problem and we’re thrilled we can bring a touch of America to the Swiss.
After that was done, we saddled up, so to speak, and went out finding and visiting even if there was a lot of slush on the ground. The sun did shine a little today which gives us hope for the Saturday Halloween thingy. I’ll be glad when that is over. Sis. Wachter wasn’t home so we left a little goody on her doorstep and also an invite to the Halloween party. Next we went to another less-active member’s home, but he wasn’t there. Another note and invitation. The last home we visited we found a sister home. She was barely able to get around and was very unsteady on her feet. Several times while we were there as she got up to do something, she almost fell over. She is a dear sweet sister. She is so sick and unstable physically that she can only get to church once in awhile. She showed us some pictures of their family and the missionaries she had in an album. She said before she got sick, the missionaries visited her all the time, but they didn’t anymore, that it had been six years and two months since she had a visit by the missionaries. She said that she had been praying that some would come and that we were the answer to her prayers. So we’ll put her on our once-a-month home/visit teaching list. We asked her if we could do anything for her and she immediately asked for a spiritual message. Her husband wasn’t home and she said he works in the Family History center twice a week at the stake center. The bishop calls him less-active because he only goes to church on Sundays once in awhile, but thinks he’s active.
On the way home we stopped off to get a few more things for Saturday and, besides, because we have to carry everything home on the tram, it seems like we’re always going to the store. At home you only had to go to the grocery store once a week or so. Here, it’s almost a daily occurrence because it’s hard to carry a lot of stuff at once. Also, Diana has wanted to get a few months supply of food storage just in case. Today we found big bottles of Heinz Ketchup on sale at half price. So now we have a years supply of Ketchup and a broken back from carrying it all home.
Tonight we made some phone calls to those we’ve visited who weren’t home or who didn’t live at the listed addresses. Two of the numbers I called someone answered, but the numbers belonged to different people now. Dead ends. I also called one sister who the bishop wanted us to contact to see if we could come visit. She said no we couldn’t because she didn’t want any more contact from the Church. She said she had returned to the Catholic church, the one she grew up in. No amount of coaxing helped. It’s always sad when this happens, especially when her daughter, who lives in our ward, is active and wanted us to visit her mother too. Well, that’s it for another day doing the greatest service on earth, at least for us right now.
We have been getting emails from our friends in our MTC session and it’s great to hear from them. The couples are scattered out all over the world. It’s an amazing thing to be a part of.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
OCTOBER 27, 2008 MONDAY
Two things happened today that were significant. First, we visited Sis. Roffler and her daughter for lunch. It was a very nice visit and lunch was great. Second, we had dinner at the Locher’s with Suki, Elders Eland and Evans Heinz and Lily Locher and us. It was kind of a celebration for Suki completing the Quit Smoking program. After that we attended the FHE at Jurg Moeller-Russo’s home. Those who attended were Pres. & Sis. Bolt, the AP’s, Joerg & Ilene Moeller-Russo, Naeide Graf (investigator), an Italian friend of Joerg’s, Fabian Streit, Suki Ehrensperger, and us. We had a lot of fun. It tried to rain all day and it finally made by nightfall. We walked home in the rain. The only other thing is we washed our clothes this morning.
OCTOBER 28, 2008 TUESDAY
This morning we were prepared to wait between 10:00 and 3:00 p.m. for our dryer to be delivered. We were just getting into our study mode when the doorbell rang (8:30 a.m.) It was the delivery of our dryer so we didn’t have to wait after all. So the rest of the morning was taken up with unpacking it and setting it up. Of course it makes our kitchen small because we had to put it in there by a plug and it wouldn’t fit anywhere else. We put it where the utinsels cabinet was and now that cabinet sits in front of the cleaning/vacuum/ironing board closet. When we pass each other in the kitchen, we already had to suck it in, so to speak, to get past each other. But, it’ll be good to have a dryer. Since wash day was yesterday, I hung out my shirts to dry. I tried putting them in the new dryer to heat up to see if the wrinkles would come out so I wouldn’t have to iron them. Well, they didn’t so I ironed most of them today before we had to go out. I’ll do the rest tomorrow.
By 2:00 we had our map with addresses plotted out and we went forth to find even though it was raining. Our efforts produced two addresses where the members had moved and one who wasn’t home. After the first address we walked to the second one because it was warmer walking and we were standing in the rain anyway. After the 2nd address we walked to the 3rd one where the member wasn’t at home. We left a message and an invitation to the Halloween party. We walked down to the next bus stop, but, you guessed it, the bus only ran twice in the early afternoon and no more runs all day. So we back tracked to the stop we’d passed getting to that address and, you guessed it, the same problem. So we back tracked to the next stop and picked up the bus going the wrong way to the end of the line. We just rode it around till it was going back the right way to a connecting stop for a bus to the Stettbach Bahnhof. There we caught our beloved Tram 7 and went home. We got home just in time to make a pit stop and then back out to church for the English class and Institute. Sis. Wachter was not at English class again tonight so we’ll have to take an invitation to them tomorrow. Diana and I ended up being the only ones left in the class because Sis. Frioud had to leave early. The Elders taught us German. The institute class we went to was one on world religions taught in English. We finally got home a little after nine and finally had time to fix dinner, a can of Ravioli. Tasted good anyway. We also had some of the cake and ice cream we bought for last weeks’ FHE.
On our way out to do our finding, Elders Pine and Middleton got on our bus; I assume they were going home for lunch. It’s always good to see the Elders. I forgot to mention something about FHE last night. The opening prayer was in English, the discussions, lessons, games etc. were in German, Swiss German, English and Italian, and the closing prayer was in Italian. Kind of gives you a flavor of what it’s like over here.
OCTOBER 29, 2008 WEDNESDAY
Today began as usual with our prayer at 7:00 a.m. and the other normal stuff. This morning was a little different because our weekly district meeting began at 9:30 instead of 10:30 and Diana had the assignment to give the spiritual thought. We don’t know why they call it a thought because it’s more like a 5-10 minute talk. The DL Elder Pine never gives much notice so Diana was up late last night and up early trying to get the thought prepared. She worries so much and feels more comfortable if she has more time to prepare. But she always does a wonderful job and this time was no exception. Her thought, more like talk, was on the theme of this meeting which was “Faith.” She used the verses in James “faith without works is dead”, the Articles of Faith especially #4 and the story of the Brother of Jared in Ether. I had the game assignment again because I had one I wanted to do last week, but the four Elders that had to leave kind of postponed the game I wanted to do. So this week the game was/is “bigger and better” in which each companion pair was given a little tea candle. They have until next district meeting to trade up as many times as they can and see who can bring in the biggest and best item. Members are off limits. I wanted us to be excluded and just have the young missionaries do it, but Diana said we also have to participate. So, we’ll see.
It was snowing hard most of the day and when it wasn’t snowing, it was raining. It’s also pretty cold now, but we can’t tell how cold because they use Celsius. One day we’ll have to learn how to convert degrees to Celsius. So we spent some time preparing the new member lessons for the couple being baptized Saturday and also looking for ingredients for caramel for the caramel apples and treats for the Halloween party Saturday. Treats, of which there aren’t many to choose from other than chocolate, cost a lot over here as do the ingredients. One can of condensed milk is 3.20 sfr. which is about $3.00. One cup of cream is about $2.20 on sale so that makes a gallon about $37.00. So, if the Elders actually find corn syrup, these caramel apples are going to cost a fortune. We say “if”, but it won’t matter because we’ve bought all the stuff already so we hope they find the corn syrup. Diana continues to make the bean bags by hand for her game Saturday.
As we were riding on the tram we talked to a young man and, of course, brought religion into the conversation. He had heard about the Mormons, but didn’t want a BM. He said it was good that people had their religion, but he wasn’t very religious. However, he accepted a pass along card with the LDS website and an invitation to get a BM.
Diana got her absentee ballot last week, so she voted and mailed it off. I got mine on Monday, but kept forgetting to mail it. Diana reminded me to get it mailed today, so I did.
Two things happened today that were significant. First, we visited Sis. Roffler and her daughter for lunch. It was a very nice visit and lunch was great. Second, we had dinner at the Locher’s with Suki, Elders Eland and Evans Heinz and Lily Locher and us. It was kind of a celebration for Suki completing the Quit Smoking program. After that we attended the FHE at Jurg Moeller-Russo’s home. Those who attended were Pres. & Sis. Bolt, the AP’s, Joerg & Ilene Moeller-Russo, Naeide Graf (investigator), an Italian friend of Joerg’s, Fabian Streit, Suki Ehrensperger, and us. We had a lot of fun. It tried to rain all day and it finally made by nightfall. We walked home in the rain. The only other thing is we washed our clothes this morning.
OCTOBER 28, 2008 TUESDAY
This morning we were prepared to wait between 10:00 and 3:00 p.m. for our dryer to be delivered. We were just getting into our study mode when the doorbell rang (8:30 a.m.) It was the delivery of our dryer so we didn’t have to wait after all. So the rest of the morning was taken up with unpacking it and setting it up. Of course it makes our kitchen small because we had to put it in there by a plug and it wouldn’t fit anywhere else. We put it where the utinsels cabinet was and now that cabinet sits in front of the cleaning/vacuum/ironing board closet. When we pass each other in the kitchen, we already had to suck it in, so to speak, to get past each other. But, it’ll be good to have a dryer. Since wash day was yesterday, I hung out my shirts to dry. I tried putting them in the new dryer to heat up to see if the wrinkles would come out so I wouldn’t have to iron them. Well, they didn’t so I ironed most of them today before we had to go out. I’ll do the rest tomorrow.
By 2:00 we had our map with addresses plotted out and we went forth to find even though it was raining. Our efforts produced two addresses where the members had moved and one who wasn’t home. After the first address we walked to the second one because it was warmer walking and we were standing in the rain anyway. After the 2nd address we walked to the 3rd one where the member wasn’t at home. We left a message and an invitation to the Halloween party. We walked down to the next bus stop, but, you guessed it, the bus only ran twice in the early afternoon and no more runs all day. So we back tracked to the stop we’d passed getting to that address and, you guessed it, the same problem. So we back tracked to the next stop and picked up the bus going the wrong way to the end of the line. We just rode it around till it was going back the right way to a connecting stop for a bus to the Stettbach Bahnhof. There we caught our beloved Tram 7 and went home. We got home just in time to make a pit stop and then back out to church for the English class and Institute. Sis. Wachter was not at English class again tonight so we’ll have to take an invitation to them tomorrow. Diana and I ended up being the only ones left in the class because Sis. Frioud had to leave early. The Elders taught us German. The institute class we went to was one on world religions taught in English. We finally got home a little after nine and finally had time to fix dinner, a can of Ravioli. Tasted good anyway. We also had some of the cake and ice cream we bought for last weeks’ FHE.
On our way out to do our finding, Elders Pine and Middleton got on our bus; I assume they were going home for lunch. It’s always good to see the Elders. I forgot to mention something about FHE last night. The opening prayer was in English, the discussions, lessons, games etc. were in German, Swiss German, English and Italian, and the closing prayer was in Italian. Kind of gives you a flavor of what it’s like over here.
OCTOBER 29, 2008 WEDNESDAY
Today began as usual with our prayer at 7:00 a.m. and the other normal stuff. This morning was a little different because our weekly district meeting began at 9:30 instead of 10:30 and Diana had the assignment to give the spiritual thought. We don’t know why they call it a thought because it’s more like a 5-10 minute talk. The DL Elder Pine never gives much notice so Diana was up late last night and up early trying to get the thought prepared. She worries so much and feels more comfortable if she has more time to prepare. But she always does a wonderful job and this time was no exception. Her thought, more like talk, was on the theme of this meeting which was “Faith.” She used the verses in James “faith without works is dead”, the Articles of Faith especially #4 and the story of the Brother of Jared in Ether. I had the game assignment again because I had one I wanted to do last week, but the four Elders that had to leave kind of postponed the game I wanted to do. So this week the game was/is “bigger and better” in which each companion pair was given a little tea candle. They have until next district meeting to trade up as many times as they can and see who can bring in the biggest and best item. Members are off limits. I wanted us to be excluded and just have the young missionaries do it, but Diana said we also have to participate. So, we’ll see.
It was snowing hard most of the day and when it wasn’t snowing, it was raining. It’s also pretty cold now, but we can’t tell how cold because they use Celsius. One day we’ll have to learn how to convert degrees to Celsius. So we spent some time preparing the new member lessons for the couple being baptized Saturday and also looking for ingredients for caramel for the caramel apples and treats for the Halloween party Saturday. Treats, of which there aren’t many to choose from other than chocolate, cost a lot over here as do the ingredients. One can of condensed milk is 3.20 sfr. which is about $3.00. One cup of cream is about $2.20 on sale so that makes a gallon about $37.00. So, if the Elders actually find corn syrup, these caramel apples are going to cost a fortune. We say “if”, but it won’t matter because we’ve bought all the stuff already so we hope they find the corn syrup. Diana continues to make the bean bags by hand for her game Saturday.
As we were riding on the tram we talked to a young man and, of course, brought religion into the conversation. He had heard about the Mormons, but didn’t want a BM. He said it was good that people had their religion, but he wasn’t very religious. However, he accepted a pass along card with the LDS website and an invitation to get a BM.
Diana got her absentee ballot last week, so she voted and mailed it off. I got mine on Monday, but kept forgetting to mail it. Diana reminded me to get it mailed today, so I did.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Oct 6, 2008
Today started out as our P-day so we slept in a little to try and catch up on our sleep. Don’t think it worked. After breakfast we studied a little ,BM, and then went out exploring on the tram. We wanted to go to Zurichsee (Zurich Lake). It’s on the south end of Zurich. We intended to go to the end of the line, get out and ride a ferry back. We were disappointed because the tram didn’t go even to the Lake because of construction. So we rode the tram back to the other end of the line. We got out at the station and went down the escalator to where the trains go further out into the suburbs. We were trying to decide on whether we should try one of those and go somewhere or not. Just then Bishop Schwendener called on the cell phone and wanted to give us names of less-active members to go visit. I told him we’d be back in our apartment in about an hour where the member list was so that killed our exploration for today. We stopped on the way back and bought some groceries.
The bishop called us as we got back and gave us 6 names of less-active, part-member families and two who were members, but nobody had ever made contact with them. So we have a purpose for the next little while.
The Stake President, President Holt, sponsors a family home evening every Monday night for whoever wants to come, mostly the Assistants to the Mission President, investigators and those who need extra nurturing. We met Sister Suki Ehrensperger who is one of the ones bishop Schwendener gave us to visit. We got acquainted with her tonight and made an appointment to visit her next Friday.
Tried to get my emails tonight but it wouldn’t accept my password. I tried too many times and it locked me out. I don’t know what to do now. I guess I’ll ask Elder Eland tomorrow if he can fix it for me. Hope so.
Where does the time go? It’s already 11:20 p.m. Good Night!
Oct 7, 2008 Tuesday
This morning I got up early and tried to get the email thing fixed. I finally was able to change the password and get in. What a relief. We felt cut off from the world. All is well again. I find out the problem was that Roxsan got my passwords on my home computer mixed up and because she couldn’t get in she changed the password at home. Of course I didn’t know what she did and so I changed them over here again. I sent an email to her address and Monica’s and asked her not to do that any more because there is no way I can find out what she did unless I call her by phone or get it by snail mail.
The first thing we did today was go to the District Meeting. The DL, Elder Pine, conducted the meeting which consisted of opening song, opening prayer, a get to know you game where everyone wrote down name, hobbies, birth place, favorite this and that, and stuff like that. A “big prayer” was given which means each missionary companionship writes the names of investigators or anyone else on a prayer list and then one Elder acts as voice for a prayer for those people. Then came a workshop activity, a success experience (me), training on different ways of contacting, closing song and prayer (Diana). Diana said her prayer in German and the missionaries were very complimentary and I’m sure the Lord was too. All in all it was a spiritual meeting with very good training and support from everyone for each other.
After the meeting we went over to visit Sister Angela Campbell, a black lady with two boys older than 18 and two younger daughters, approx. 4 and 7. Her husband left her and we’ve been told she’s pretty down right now. She sat in front of us in Conference, but we didn’t know who she was then. She’s also not very active. She wasn’t home when we came, but Ricardo, her son answered the door. We gave him a flyer for the Book of Mormon Fireside President Matern is sponsoring next Sunday evening. We invited him to come and to make sure he gave the invitation to his mother. Later that evening I called her on the phone to see if we could visit with her sometime. She wouldn’t let us this week, but we’ll try next week. I gave her a personal invite to the fireside.
We then went back on the tram and tried to find the Kummer’s who are a family that comes to church about once a month and thinks that makes them active.. When we got up to the tram stop and got off, we realized I had only written down the directions and not the address. So we turned around and went home.
By then it was time to go to the English class the AP’s teach at the church. One other person came who was a member who has been inactive for the last 12 years, but wants to get back active again. We go so Diana can learn German while the others learn English. The AP’s (Elder Eland & Elder Evans) said there’s usually at least 4 or 5 people come to the class.
After class I spent the rest of the evening on the phone calling the Kummers (who said they would meet us in church Sunday), the Wachter’s (he’s a non-member, wife is a member), and Angela Campbell. Herr Wachter said his wife was out and to call her Saturday and set up an appointment. So, a lot of spinning wheels, but maybe some good will come out of it.
OCTOBER 8, 2008 WEDNESDAY
This morning we studied until the AP’s came over to bring us up to speed on the members in the ward. They said there wasn’t even a member list until a couple of months ago when they put one together. They have been trying to confirm all the names and addresses, but they haven’t been able to get it all done. We’ll see if we can help the work along. They said the ward mission leader is only part active and so doesn’t, of course, do a good job of it. He asked us to visit him also to help him along. Interesting. When they left, we spent some time looking up addresses and planned the way we could find them. All of the ones we were asked to visit are a long way away from here. We have to take the tram, transfer to bus, and for the farther ones, tranfer to a train. We did get to one elderly sister, Verena Bosshard, who lives in an old folks home. We finally got there at dinner time so we visited at her table until her meal came. We made arrangements to visit her on Sunday afternoon because she said she doesn’t get visits on Sunday. She seemed like a sweet old Grandma.
We made it back home by 7:30, cooked a frozen pizza (not good) and finished up the night studying and writing this journal. Well, Time to go.
OCTOBER 9, 200 THURSDAY
Diana made sure that we prepared a schedule so that we would complete everyday the things we should be doing. It begins at 8:00 with get up and get ready. At 8:30 we have individual study time. At 9:00 we have companion study for language and scriptures. At 10:00 we plan for the day which, for now, includes finding where members live on the map and plotting how to get there by tram, train or bus. Traveling takes a long time so we plan on visiting two or maybe three members a day. At 12:00 we have breakfast/lunch and at 1:00 pm we leave for our visits.
Today we wanted to visit Sister Roffler who is elderly and just lost her husband a few months ago. The Googlemaps got us to the right train station, but then would only give us walking directions. When we got to Bahnhof Stetten we saw that there were bus lines running everywhere. So we estimated where we should go and got on bus 752. We got off one stop past where we should have, but it wasn’t very far so I got out my handy dandy Tom Tom, plugged in the addresses and, you guessed it, went the wrong way. It had us going uphill and downhill and around in circles. We quit following it and it would tell us to turn around. We asked man picking apples in his yard and we followed his directions. Ypu, wrong way. We followed Tom Tom until we were tired and then Diana figured where we should be from the poor map we had. We finally found her home, but she wasn’t there. We left a note for her and said we’d call later. I called her later tonight and found out she was going away for a week to visit with her daughter and family. We had a good talk on the phone and we’ll meet her a week from Sunday in church.
We then managed to find an address where another member should have lived, but he’d moved or something. After that we rode a couple of trams around to figure out how to get to the other addresses in Dubendorf when we come back.
At Bahnhof Stetten I talked with a lady for approx. 15 minutes. She was fun to talk to, but she said she was Evangelisch and didn’t want to change. She accepted a passalong card though. Riding the tram I also was able to talk to a man who was very friendly and told us about the country. We introduced ourselves as missionaries and he said he’d heard of us and, in fact, had been in Utah. He accepted a passalong card and an invitation to come to the BM fireside Sunday afternoon. Who knows, maybe he’ll come. I tried to get him to let us come teach him, but he avoided that. I invited him to look up the lds.org address and, if he had questions, to call us.
When we got back to Bahnhof Stetten it was almost dark (7:30) so we came home. We had supper and now I’m catching up on the paper work while Diana is studying German. She is so determined to learn it, and she will. Diana is a trooper. She walked all over today without complaining once and we did hike all over. Well, tomorrow is a big day. I have to get up early and wash clothes and then get to the tri-zone conference by 8:55 am. To wash clothes we have to reserve the wash room. The only way to dry the clothes is to put them on clothes line there or bring them back to apartment and hang them up. No electric dryer. Zone conference lasts until 3:00 pm and after that we will visit Sister Suki Ehrensberger. She may have found a job. Well, Good night.
OCTOBER 10, 2008 FRIDAY
This morning I had to get up early and do our washing. We have to reserve a time in the community washroom. I woke up early, about 5:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep so I caught up some of our record-keeping. I can’t get on the computer word processing because it’s in the bedroom next to Diana’s side of the bed. Anyway, at 7:00 I took my wash over and tried to figure out how the machine worked. I finally got it going and then I noticed the directions hanging on the wall. I could have done it a lot faster if I had read them first. I was getting frantic because we had to be over to the Church at 8:55 for our zone conference and I didn’t want to be late. I got done just in time to hurry back, get ready and go.
The conference was a great one. All of the speakers were great as well as the missionaries who took part. Pres. Matern spoke on hope, faith and love. Without hope, we can’t have faith; without hope or faith, you can’t have love. But love brings hope and hope and love brings faith. This conference included two other zones because Elder Kearon, the Area Authority Seventy from England, and his wife were our guest speakers. They gave such wonderful and inspiring talks and Elder Kearon gave a lot of good training. Everyone there should have come away with an increased desire to be strictly obedient and energetic in the work.
After the conference we had an appointment with Suki Ehrensberger. We left on the tram, changed to train in the Zurich Bahnhof. We missed our train by 30 seconds and they don’t wait for anybody. We waited the ½ hour and went on our way. By this time we new we were going to be late. Diana got confused which our stop should be so she insisted we get off one too soon. After we got off we discovered our mistake so we had to wait another half hour for the next train. We didn’t waste the time, however, because an older gentleman was standing there and after he helped us I talked to him for about 15 minutes about the Church and the Book of Mormon. His last name was Oertler. He said he had been in Salt Lake and new about the Church. When asked if he knew of the Book of Mormon he said he had one. At my question he said he hadn’t read much and it was home in his drawer. I explained why it’s important, and invited him to get it out and read 3rd Nephi about Christ’s visit to America. I tried to get his address so we could come explain it to him. No dice. We then invited him (gave him a flyer) to the BM fireside Sunday evening at 5:00 pm. Who knows, maybe he and his wife will come. He knew where our ward building is.
We finally got to Suki’s place. She’s a humble sister whose trying hard and needs support and friends. She’s alone here in Switzerland, but her daughter (lives in England) and her step daughter who lives here somewhere but not close come to visit her. She said they are both not members, but are being taught. The step daughter sometimes comes to Church with her. We gave her an inpromtu lesson and left a prayer in her home. She insisted on driving us home in her car rather than having us ride the train. By car it was only 10 minutes; by train/tram it’s about an hour if we make connections and don’t get lost.
Well, we got home and I ironed my shirts and then we studied German some more by reading scriptures. It is already 10:17 pm. Where does the time go? I still need to write Justin and Jett a letter as well as one to Jackie Gelo, our neighbor at home who we were fellowshipping and one to Kathy Owens, a non-member neighbor friend who moved away to Ohio. Anyway, they’ll have to wait for another day. Good Night.
OCTOBER 11, 2008 SATURDAY
Today we did our usual morning routine; got up, personal study, companion language/scripture study, plan the day as well as how to get to the homes (tram, trains, bus and feet), then breakfast/brunch. At 1:00 we pray and begin our finding/visits. Of course we are still working on the names Bishop Wichterman gave us to search out and visit. The first name was Julia Nunez who he hadn’t met and didn’t know. We found her and she acknowledged she was a member, but she didn’t speak very good German. Both she and her husband spoke Italian. I left her an invitation to come to the BM fireside tomorrow evening. Bishop Wichterman also gave us the name of her Mother-in-law, Olga de Las. She said Olga moved back to Chile in South America.
Marcel Baldegger came to the door with a cigarette in his mouth and said he was a member only because his mother wanted him to be, not because he wanted to. He said he had no interest. We tried Karl Fluder who was not home. We left a note for him that we’d try to visit him later. These visits took most of the afternoon so we started home about 6:00 pm. On the way we stopped at the shopping mall Centrum Platt to take a BM to Marc Boetschi but he wasn’t there. He’s the one who sold us our Transport Pass. We’ll try to catch him next week. We had to buy some copy paper and a small gift to take to Sister Verena Bosshard, the blind elderly sister who lives in the assisted living home. Then we went home. By this time we were dead tired again.
In spite of that I had to complete our progress report for our correlation meeting in the morning. I wanted to do it in German for bishop Wichterman so it took me three hours to get it done. Someway the computer goofed it up so it took me an extra hour to figure it out without having to recreate the report out of my notes again. We finally got to bed at 10:30. That’s the end of this sad story. Good Night.
OCTOBER 12, 2008 SUNDAY
We didn’t have time for our normal morning routine because our day starts with correlation meeting at the ward at 8:30. This may change because Elder Eland said we may be invited to the meeting before the correlation meeting. I’m not sure what this one is , but I’m sure it’s important. I thought we would be asked to report on our week’s activities, but was not. The Ward Mission Leader, Marcel Daehler, said there wasn’t time. Elder Eland asked to see our report so I gave him a copy. He seemed very impressed by what we had accomplished during the week because he said, “Wow.” I asked him if that’s what we should be doing and he replied yes. We are still feeling our way in what our focus should be as a couple missionary.
After this meeting came Priesthood/Relief Society, Sunday School and then Sacrament meeting. Today was fast meeting and I was the first up to bear testimony. I wanted the members to know Diana and I have testimonies and are glad to be here serving a mission among them.
After church Diana and I traveled to Basserdorf to visit sister Bosshard. She is a sweet lady who loves the Lord and her fellowmen. For example, her roommate probably has Alzheimers, can’t talk except to scream “clean” when she messes her pants or just screams. When asked if she could request to stay with someone else, she said somebody has to be her roommate and she gets along OK. She said she feels the lady appreciates her even though she can’t express it. Since sister Bosshard is mostly blind and can’t read, I read a story out of “The Liahona” for her as well as an article of Elder Uchtdorf’s quotes. We left her some cookies; she gave us two pears as we left to go home.
By the way, when we got to Basserdorf, we had to walk because the tram that we took before doesn’t run on Sundays. We set out on foot and were going the right way, but we decided we had to go up a little so we took a sidewalk that we shouldn’t have. Fortunately we saw a man and asked direction and he pointed us the right way. We probably walked an extra ten minutes is all. We took the right way back and it only took us 10 minutes to get to the station to take the train back home. While we waited for the train, Diana was so hungry we decided to pray over our two pears and break our fast. We were eating our pears when it looked like our train was coming so we hurriedly tried to finish them in time, but threw a little in the garbage. This hurt because we wanted to eat them down to the last morsel. Wrong train! Ours came a little later. We got back with a few minutes to spare so we went home, did what was necessary, got a drink and had a few bites then went back to the Church for a BM fireside presented by Pres. Matern. There were a lot of people there, mostly members and missionaries, but a few investigators. After the lecture there were refreshments in the cultural hall where people mingled. Refreshments were pretzel sticks, small crackers and punch. Diana had a good time talking with Nadi, an investigator being taught by Elders Eland and Evans, and Sister Matern, the President’s wife. Nadi comes to the FHE at Pres. Bolt’s home on Monday evening and this time she has the spiritual thought, which is a new experience for her.
I was worried about not remembering to give Bishop Wichterman our report because it was he who asked us to visit the ones we had. He was there at the fireside so I gave him a verbal report. He also gave the Ward Mission Leader more names for us to visit, but we didn’t get them from him. I called Bro. Daehler to get the names, but he wasn’t home. His wife said to call him tomorrow.
Well, home again and we’re pooped. Chicken pattie on a bun for supper. For desert we had one little cookie each. I also cooked some carrots which are still on the stove. I think I’ll have some and then go to bed. Good Night.
OCTOBER 14, 2008 MONDAY
This morning was the usual routine except today was P-day where we can do what we want. Of course we need to study the language/scriptures, so we did. I wrote a lot of emails to catch up our correspondence. I also wrote a letter to Justin hoping I can reach him and get him to come back to the Church. I wrote a letter to little Jett also. I wrote a letter to Jackie Gelo to encourage her to listen to the missionaries and also to lift her spirits because she’s been ill again.
At 1:30 we met Fabian and he took us grocery shopping at the COOP store rather than Migros. All the same stuff. It helped Diana to understand how to read labels and understand what things were. It also helped Fabian feel like he was helping us which is always good to feel like you are being of service to someone.
We checked in at home with the groceries and then went to the POST to mail Justin’s letter. We also looked for street maps of the towns (suburbs) we are working in. Then we went home to prepare to go to a teaching appointment with Elder Elend and Evans. Elder Elend went with President Bolt and Diana and I went to the appt. with Elder Evans. This brother has been away from the Church for 12 years, was molested as a child which causes him problems, but wants to come back. We taught the lesson about the Atonement and his stumbling block is to forgive the perpetrator. He is going to meet with Bishop Wichterman Sunday to start working on the process. The progress of this man falls under the jurisdiction of the Ward and not the Mission, but the Elders can teach him.
After that came the FHE at the Bolt’s home. This time some of the same people were there but Nada, the investigator, wasn’t. I think she may have got scared because she was assigned by Pres. Bolt to give the spiritual thought this time. Anyway, the evening went good, our game, two lies and a truth, was fun, and we came home.
OCTOBER 14, 2008 TUESDAY
After our normal daily routine we went to our weekly district meeting. These meetings are kind of fun and a lot of good training happens as well as spiritual and uplifting testimonies and shared experiences. The game we played was patterned after the parable of the girl who lost a silver coin and she had to find it because it was part of her dowry and she couldn’t get married without it. I’ll have to look up the scripture in the New Testament. Every Elder hid in the church somewhere with only one elder left behind (hide and seek). But when the one looking found someone, both would look and everyone then would help until the last one was found. A lot of fun.
After the meeting I cut the hair of two elders. I tried to use the power converter here in the apartment and it blew the breaker. I tried to use it again at the church so I could use my own clippers, but it blew the breaker again. Elder Larsson (from Sweden) looked at it and found that it converts exactly opposite of what I need here. It goes converts 110 V to 220V. No wonder it blew the breakers. I’ll have to go find one tomorrow because I’ve made an appointment to cut the hair of Elder Pine and Elder Holbrook tomorrow night.
After that we came home and spent the rest of the afternoon looking up addresses of members to visit and plotting them on a map. Tomorrow we’ll attempt to visit as many as we can. At 6:30 we went to the weekly English class taught by the missionaries. This time Elders Pine and Holbrook came because the Ap’s were busy. This time Dora Wachter and Cinthya Frioud came. Cinthya is active, but her husband is not. Dora is semi-active and her husband is a non-member. Dora Wachter is a member who bishop Wichterman gave us last week to visit. I called her home last week twice, but her husband said she wasn’t home and to call back. The Lord works in mysterious ways to accomplish his work! Who knew that she would be in the English class tonight. Elder Elend said she’d only been one other time a couple months ago. Diana is so good with people. She made friends with both of them and invited Dora to church so she could have someone to sit with whom she knew. We made an appointment to visit her next Saturday. I’ll be a good opportunity for Diana and Dora to teach each other the language. We came back home after, had our meager dinner, me saurkraut/ham sandwich and Diana a ham sandwich and dried apple slices. I put some more wheat out to soak to cook for breakfast. Study time, journal, then to bed. Good Night!
OCTOBER 15, 2008
Today started out with preparation, study etc. By Noon we were on the road (tram, train) so to speak, out to meet members in the Schwerzenbach area. Before we were through today, we had walked our legs off. Mostly members were not at home, but we left a note of introduction and that we would call back or telephone for an appointment. On the back of the note was a flyer for a fireside Friday evening on the people of Central America in book of Mormon times. Maybe some of them will come.
The bishop sent us specifically to the Sigrist family. Sister Sigrist invited us in and promptly told us that her husband would not be pleased for us to be there. She had asked that no one from the church visit there. She said if he had been there, we would have had a fight on our hands. Anyway, she was very nice and she, at least, comes now and then to church meetings and, she said, she likes to meet with the sisters. I relayed the information to the bishop later this evening.
The addresses of two members were either incorrect or they had moved without forwarding addresses. It takes so long to walk between the members’ homes. But, what else have we to do. It would be nice to have a car, but, too expensive to buy, nowhere to park in town and gas is also way expensive. Who can afford $10.00 a gallon?
I’m stioll trying to find a converter from 220v. To 110v. We stopped at Migros, but they didn’t have one, but Diana found plaster and spray paint. Now she’s happy because she can make sunstones. She’s already made a couple.
Barely made it back in time for the appointment to cut the District leaders hair. Fortunately there was a pair of clippers left here in the apartment that I can use. They looked pretty good when I was finished.
Home, supper and to bed. Good Night.
OCTOBER 16, 2008 THURSDAY
This morning I got up to do a load of wash because nobody had reserved the time for this morning, but when I got to the washroom, someone had their clothes already in the washer. So I’ll wait for tomorrow to do the wash. After early morning stuff, we located the other person Bishop Schwendener gave us to visit and then plotted the homes of all the other members who lived in the area on the map. At 1:00 we were just leaving our apartment to make our visits when Elder Evans called us. They and the District Leaders wanted to meet with us to see if we could brainstorm and come up with an activity or something to do with the ward members to get hem energized to do member missionary work. It was raining heavily outside and they couldn’t do the street contacting activity they had planned on.
We came up with a lot of ideas, but some would take a lot of time to plan and carry out. We decided to do something quick which is to prepare a Halloween celebration, Trick or Trunk, bobbing for apples, eating donuts off a string, spook alley, being blind-folded and be required to eat something out of a bowl, etc. The AP’s were going to talk to the bishop and see if he would approve and, if possible, invite other wards to participate. We’ll see what happens. We also made a commitment to say a prayer every morning at 7:00 and every evening before bed and include three things. 1st pray for the people who are looking for the truth to find the missionaries. 2nd pray for the missionaries to find those who are looking for the truth. 3rd pray for the members to have a missionary experience every day. We also include what Pres. Monson asked us to do and that is to pray for the countries not open yet for missionary work to open their borders for proselyting.
After the Elders left we went on our way, in spite of the rain, to visit Margrith Maurer in Opfikon. We found her address, but found that she had moved. I called later this evening and the phone number had been discontinued. It was raining really hard by this time and, we decided, people would not like to let us in to visit soaking wet, so we went home. On the way we stopped at Migros again for some groceries. You can’t buy everything at once because it would be too difficult to carry on the tram.
I fixed a decent meal tonight with chicken, noodles, mushrooms and a sauce to go with it. Pretty good. Now I’m doing reports and journal while Diana is studying. Time for me to quit. Good Night!
OCTOBER 17, 2008 FRIDAY
After our prayer, prep/study time, we went out to meet the members who had we plotted out on our map. We didn’t get to talk to a single member except at one house, Bro. & Sis. David Ryser who are active, one of their kids were home, but the parents weren’t so we couldn’t visit. It took us about an hour of walking to find the Ryser’s home, so it was disappointing that we didn’t get to visit. Monteiro and Ebuluofer had moved. We found Jaeger’s address, but it was the Hotel Hilton. We went to the desk and asked if we had the right address, and the clerk said that Jaeger had worked there , but didn’t any more. So, dead end.
We stopped at the COOP, another grocery store, to look around while waiting for the tram and found a little bundt cake for $1.65. This is the cheapest goodie we have found anywhere since we have been here. We need to provide the dessert for FHE next Monday night. One bundt cake will feed probably 4 or 5 people (with whipped cream and a dollop of ice cream). We tried it and it was really pretty good. We hope our guests will like it. The only thing is, we need to go back tomorrow and see if there are any left.
We got home in time to rest a little and then to the Church for the fireside on Central America. They showed a DVD of photos while a sister provided the dialog. It covered a major city in a lot of the Central and So. American countries. There were some slides of the Mayan ruins, but mostly it looked like vacation photos of interesting people, buildings, and landscape while the narrator talked of customs, buildings and some Book of Mormon related things. Anyway, not quite like we thought it would be, because it was billed as Book of Mormon related fireside.
It was interesting and a lot of people came to see it.
Home and to bed.
OCTOBER 18, 2008 SATURDAY
I did my ironing this morning and then at 10:00 this morning we were at a Young Single Adult Activity in which there were some opening talks and then breakouts into three separate rooms for individual discussions on different topics. One was on the Book of Mormon led by Pres. Matern; one was on the Bread of Life (can’t remember the brother’s name); and th other on Come Unto Me (lead by Sis. Wichteman). We only had time to stay for one and then we had to go. We wanted to buy those Bundt cakes before they were gone, and we had an appointment to visit Sister Wachter at 3:00. The cakes were still there and we bought 10 of them, enough for FHE and the next District Meeting.
We got on the bus with, what we thought was plenty of time to get to the Wachters, but things happen. We took the tram to Stettbach, got off and waited for our bus 752. We talked to a lady while waiting and it was a good conversation. I tried to give her a BM, but she said she doesn’t read much and also didn’t want the missionaries to come by. When our bus came, we got on, but it just moved forward a ways and then stopped. Still at the bahnhof. We waited and waited for it to go, but it just stayed there. The public transit system is very punctual over here and I couldn’t understand why it didn’t go because it was 20 minutes behind schedule. Finally it took off, but when we should have turned one way for our stop, it turned another. Unbeknownst to us, the bus changed its number to 743 when it moved up a little ways. So, we got off at the next stop, got our bearings, and walked to Sis. Wachter’s home. We were only 30 minutes late, but what a hassle. Diana still runs pretty good! Another lesson learned. Make sure what bus you’re on.
We had a very good visit with Sis. Wachter, her husband and 14 year old son. Her husband isn’t a member, but I asked him anyway “why.” He gave the usual answer that he was raised in another church and didn’t want to change. We still had a good visit and he asked us to come back again. It’ll just be good to fellowship and, who knows, maybe down the line things may change.
We came back home, this time it took only 30 minutes to get here. We’re waiting for the AP’s to pick us up for a dinner appointment with Sister Suki Ehrensberger who just needs support right now. They picked us up and we arrived for the dinner/teaching appointment on time. The dinner was pork chops, a yummy salad, hot vegetable dish, rice w/sauce and then dessert of a chocolate cake covered banana roll with ice cream. It was superb. After that came the lesson which was on giving up smoking. The Elder’s presented the 15 step program for Suki. She had already made the commitment to quit smoking so she started the 15 step program tonight. The first step was to sign a contract with herself and the Lord that she would quit smoking and follow the program. Some of the 15 steps are: 1. pray every morning 1st thing; 2. brush teeth; 3. eat good breakfast; 4. brush teeth; 5. throw away every cigaret and tobacco related objects (ash trays, lighters, etc.); 6. Take 1500mg vitamin C every day; 7. Put up notes to remind her not to smoke; 8. Have healthy snacks between meals; 9 write down what triggers smoking; 10. Tell all her friends that she’s stopping smoking and to help her; 11. After each meal drink orange or grapefruit juice; 12. After meals and teeth brushing use mouthwash, the nastier tasting the better; 13. When urge to smoke, get fresh air in lungs by taking a short walk, breathing deeply etc.; 14. have a list of things to do when getting urge to smoke; 15. Call her support group anytime night or day when feeling weak or depressed (one of her triggers). Time for bed. Our first meeting tomorrow is at 8:00. Good Night.
OCTOBER 19, 2008
We were up and at ‘em early this morning because we, as a district, pray every morning at 7:00 and we had our first correlation meeting at, we thought, 8:00. It should have been, but everyone but us was late. The meeting finally started and we went over all the missionary activities. This week there was enough time for us to go over our activities for the last two weeks. We also received another name from the bishop of a less active member who he wants us to visit. Sister Wachter was in church today as well as Suki. It was good to see them both there. Sister Wachter said her husband wants us to come for dinner one night, so me asking him why he wasn’t a member must not have offended him. Sister Helena Roffler was also back from her vacation and introduced herself to us. She said she was going to be busy for awhile, but took our phone number and will call us when she has time for a visit.
After church we went home and had lunch and Diana suggested we go visit Heather Scheidegger, the name the bishop gave us to visit this week. We plotted our route through Google and went on our merry way. We were going just fine, right tram, but then the tram left its normal route and took off on another direction. Diana kept saying, “we’re going the wrong way over and over again.” Come to find out construction caused a detour. After studying our map, we finally figured out how to go where we wanted. It’s always an adventure.
We caught them home and had a nice visit. She said she was not active and didn’t intend to get active. Rolf, her husband, said he had no interest in the church either. They said they come to meetings/activities a few times a year and that was enough for them. We asked if we could come visit them once in awhile especially when we needed to see a friendly face, and they said we could. On the way out Diana mentioned that maybe we could play some games and Heather responded they would like to teach us the card game of Golf. I think we know that game. So, we’ll try to make friends and love them into the Church.
At a tram stop on the way home we met a man from Thun and talked with him about the Church. He thought we didn’t believe in Christ or that he would come a 2nd time. We taught him what we believed and tried to give him a Book of Mormon, but he refused it. Well, we made it home, but as we traveled around this afternoon, we did get to see a little more of the countryside. It’s a pretty country once you get outside the city. Well, time for prayer and bedtime. Good Night!
OCTOBER 20, 2008 MONDAY
Prayer at 7:00 and then I vacuumed the house while Diana slept in a little. She gets pretty tired walking around all the time. Diana got up and I helped her finish cleaning the house for FHE tonight. After we got done Diana decided we’d go look for the chocolate place so I googled it up and found it. Then we plotted the route and took off. Everything went well until at the bus stop two buses were listed to go to Kirchberg which was our stop so we flipped a coin and got on one. You guessed it, wrong one. We rode it to the end and came back and got off where we thought we should go. Nope, had to go back the way we came. We were discussing where to get off when a lady asked us where we were going. We told her as we came to a bus stop and she said , ”follow me, get off here.” We explained again we were looking for the chocolate outlet store and wouldn’t you know it, she was going to the same one. But, she had a car and asked us if we wanted to ride with her. She took us right there. I had already given away my BM so I gave her a pamphlet about the Church. We bought some chocolate things, some for tonight, and went home. During this going back and forth, we were at a bus stop and began talking with a young lady. Of course we talked about the Church and ended up giving her a Book of Mormon. We have our name, phone number and the Church address stamped in the front. Hopefully someday we’ll get a call or see someone in Church who we’ve given a BM to. After that we went up to Centrum Glatt to get a few things, but also to check and see if Markus Boetschi was at work. He was and so we were finally able to give him a BM. He promised to read it and we promised we’d be back to talk to him again in a couple of weeks.
Home again to wait for 7:00 for FHE. This time Elders Elend & Evans, Suki and Rolf , the one we gave the lesson on the Atonement to, came. We had a good time playing “spoons” as well as a good spiritual lesson given by Suki. Dessert was also good. The Elders made another appointment with Rolf Hediger for tomorrow because he’s quitting smoking as well as trying to get his life back in order to become a member of the Church in good standing. The meeting is going to be at our home. We are also beginning a fast for Fabian Streit who is meeting with the bishop tomorrow night to see if he can receive the Aaronic Priesthood. And now it’s time for bed. Good Night!
OCTOBER 21, 2008 TUESDAY
Today began as usual, prayer at 7:00 and so on. We got a call around 11:00 from the AP’s saying that Rolf had canceled his appointment at 2:00 p.m., but they still wanted to meet with us to finalize the activities/events for the Halloween party on Nov. 1. We studied German/scriptures until about noon and then we got on the internet to find Halloween stuff. We printed off a lot of ideas and they were very helpful when the Elders came. We think we got everything planned, but a lot of coordinating needs to get done before Nov. 1. The Elders are going to talk with the bishops of the other two wards to make assignments and also to organize the missionaries. We said we’d make caramel apples and suckers, if they could find corn syrup. We said we’d also make cookies and a cake for the cake walk.
After that meeting we prepared for then went to the interview with President Matern. We talked about things in general, about how things were going and he asked us if we had our dryer yet. We told him all was going well and that we were going to come to the mission home tomorrow to talk to sister Klaumunzner about the dryer and Sister Sunke about verification of the health insurance. He then mentioned several things he may ask us to do. One was to help get two apartments ready that they were renting for missionaries. Second, to be prepared to teach new member missionary lessons to a couple that will be baptized probably November 1st. If it happens on the first, we may have to go to the baptism instead of the Halloween party. Third, he said we may be asked to cover the phones at the mission home occasionally. Fourth, next month he plans on visiting the missionary apartments to conduct the missionary interviews while his wife inspects the condition of the apartments. They do this every other interview. If they think we can fix problems they discover, they’ll ask us to go and fix them. Other than that, he said to keep on doing what we’re doing. He seemed very pleased with what we’re doing and with the reports we gave him. Diana and I just want to do what he wants us to do, anywhere where we can be of service.
After the interview we dashed home to break our fast for Fabian and then back again to the church for English class. Sister Wachter didn’t come because it was reported she had back pain. Too bad, we were looking forward to seeing her. A German tutor came and got Sister Frioud, an active member learning English, out of the class to go teach her German. After the English class Diana went looking for Sis. Frioud and her tutor to see if she could sit in. We found them and yes, we were able to sit in. After that class was over, I talked some with Bishop Schwendener while Diana talked with Esther Ryser, one of the people who we tried to visit last week, but wasn’t home. After that we went home. Diana studied her material to give her German tip in District meeting tomorrow while I finished this journal entry.
OCTOBER 22, 2008 WEDNESDAY
Up at 7:00 for prayer and then get ready and all that stuff. We had District meeting this morning at 10:30 and we had to do some prep things to get ready for the gme and Diana’s German language tip. We walked over to the COOP store and got some gummi O’s and pretzel sticks for the game and then went back to the Church to wait for the Elders. I still had time to make a “Helium Stick” out of rolled up news papers for a different game. We ended up playing this one because four Elders had to leave before we got to the game. You play this game by standing in two rows facing each other. Each person puts out one finger, fingernail side up and the Helium stick is laid across them so it goes horizontally between them resting on the backs of their fingers. The trick is for them to keep their fingers in touch with the rod, without pinching it or grabbing it, and lowering it to the ground. It’s hard to do and the stick actually rises because the pressure from the fingers with them trying to keep in touch with the stick applies more pressure than the weight of the stick. Well, as you can guess, they tried and tried to lower it, but it wouldn’t go down.
I am amazed at the spiritual lessons these Elders give. They are the best of the best and I can believe they are warriors in God’s Army. There’s a standard format that Elder Pine uses in organizing the meeting. He chooses a theme for the meeting and then makes assignments center on that theme. One Elder is assigned the opening prayer and chooses the song; one has the spiritual thought, one has a tip on learning the German language, one has a game, one is voice for the Big Prayer, one teaches how to memorize a scripture, one gives a success story, Elder Pine gives a lesson on the theme, and one chooses the closing song and gives the prayer. Today he added a new topic and that was for each to tell of a good thing that happened during the week that wasn’t missionary related. This is an effort to help the missionaries get better acquainted with each other. Overall it’s just a fantastic meeting.
After the meeting we went home, had lunch, and then went to the mission home to take that government request for health insurance verification to Sister Sunke and also to talk to Sister Klaumunzner about getting a clothes dryer. All went well except Sis. Klaumunzner went home early and wasn’t there. We left a note and I’ll call her tomorrow and see how she wants to do this. On the way home we stopped at the Zurich Bahnhof to see if we could get some better maps from the Visitor Info Office, but none was available. So, we got on the tram to come home, but we saw a bigger COOP store and stopped to see if we could find some corn syrup. No dice. They said maybe Jemoli’s carried it so we’ll look there. We also stopped at the post office to mail the Sanpete property quit claim deed to our attorneys so they could finish the Larson Family Trust. So that basically ended our day after we got home except we had supper, writing journals and reports and studying. Tomorrow we’ll be out locating less-active members again and, I hope it’ll quit raining by then. Rain yesterday and today after I bragged on how nice this fall weather has been.
Oh, today we received notice in our box that they tried to deliver a package (Roxsan’s) while we were not home. I called and they said they’ll try and deliver it tomorrow before noon. We should be here.
OCTOBER 23, 2008 THURSDAY
Prayer at 7:00 and normal stuff except at about 10:30 our package arrived. It had some cute letters from our Rees, Drayson, May, Jade, and Robert. The Halloween decorations were great as well as some names and addresses of members I knew from my first mission. I also got a belt and my other name tag.
After we got the names of the less active members of those we planned to visit plotted on the map, we went out searching. It was pretty cold today, but not raining. We never know beforehand what we’re going to find in the way of country, suburbs or city, but this time we ended up in the city. We walked around looking for addresses and finally found some. It’s hard because the bottom floors are businesses and the upper floors are residences. You have to be very observant to find some of them. We only talked to one person who said she attended a black church but we invited her and her family to the Halloween party on Nov. 1st. Her son was standing there and we invited him too. After, we asked ourselves if we had really talked to the member or not. Only one person in the home is a member. We’ll have to try again and make sure we got the right one.
As we were trying to find an address we realized we were at the store where we met Markus Nussbaumer to whom we had given a Book of Mormon. So we went in to see him, but he wasn’t at work. This is where I bought a P-day shirt a couple of weeks ago. They were still on sale so I bought another one because one was not enough. The clothes dryer was still there, but I guess Sister Klaumunzner must not like it because she hadn’t bought it for us yet. I called her today to make sure she had the information she needed. I clarified some things for her and so she’ll again try to find us one that she likes and will work for us. There isn’t much else to talk about so that’s it for tonight.
OCTOBER 24, 2008 FRIDAY
This morning we got a call from Sister Klaumunzner about our clothes dryer. She said it had been ordered and would be delivered sometime next Tuesday. She didn’t know the time, but she said they usually call before they deliver. This is a District meeting day at 10:30 a.m. every week. We hope it doesn’t interfere with the meeting because we enjoy those meetings.
This morning we spent organizing the names into Zip Codes so it’s easier plotting addresses on a google map. After brunch, we went out to visit again. Two of the members evidently had moved because their names were not on the mailboxes. Two were not home and we couldn’t leave flyers for the Halloween party because the outer doors were locked and the mailboxes were inside. We tried to find one sister in an old folks home, but she had moved. I asked one of the workers if he knew where she had gone. He took me to an office and used the computer to try and find out. As he was looking I talked to him about the Church. He said he had heard of the Mormons and, when I asked him if he had a BM, he said he did once, but didn’t now. I told him I happened to have one with me and did he want one. He said he was very interested in having one, so I gave it to him. I asked him if we could visit him at home and talk to him about it, but he just wanted our names and phone number. If he doesn’t call, we’ll go back and see if we can talk to him. It seems like we give out BM’s, but don’t get to follow up much. Besides this one, we gave BM’s to the store clerk, Markus Nussbaumer, and haven’t caught him at work to follow up; and Markus Boetschi, the one who we bought our transportation passes from, we finally caught at work and gave a BM to him. That happened just a few days ago. We’ll try and catch him at work next week and see if he has read any in it.
We continued to visit members so at the next house that we knocked on, a young lady came to the door. I introduced us and she said that her husband was in the shower and that they didn’t have time for a visit and they’d see us in church Sunday and make an appointment with us. We were discussing this as we walked back down the sidewalk that they were probably active members. We’re so new in the ward that we don’t really know names of very many of the active members. We just plot names on our map and go visit. As we were going away Diana thought she recognized another lady on a doorstep as an active member. Sure enough, she looked up and called to us. It was Rita Wichterman, the just released bishop’s wife. She invited us in and we had a good visit with her and Bishop Urs Wichterman. She had just made donuts and she gave us one. She is going to make donuts for the Halloween party. We plan to use them tied on a string and the kids have to eat them off not using any hands. We are still trying to find corn syrup to buy so we can make carmel apples for the Halloween party. Bro. Wichterman has a bakery so we thought he might use corn syrup. When asked, he had no idea what corn syrup is. He gave us a couple of businesses that might carry it, and then Sis. Wichterman called an American family who might know where to buy it. I talked to her husband on the phone and he said they had some, but they had to bring it with them from USA. He didn’t know if his wife wanted to part with any of hers. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow at Priesthood Meeting. We checked out the two stores that Urs referred us to, but they didn’t know what corn syrup was either. So home for the rest of the night.
OCTOBER 25, 2008 SATURDAY
This morning I went to Stake Priesthood Meeting and Diana stayed home. We had a great meeting with the theme changing to become like Christ. The first half of the meeting was directed at the youth and the second half at the MP. Also the Temple President and his wife were present and they bid them goodbye because they are being released pretty soon. While I was at Priesthood meeting Diana did her usual morning routine plus worked at hand sewing some bean bags for the bean bag toss at the Halloween party Saturday. She also continued working at making sunstones. She’s making sunstones to give to people along the way. She gave one to Suki when we went over to dinner last week. While I was gone, Sis. Roffler called to invite us to lunch on Monday. It was a new experience for Diana to answer the phone. Diana thought it was the member, Sis. Locher, who was with us at Suki’s but it really was Sis. Roffler who we had tried to visit a couple weeks ago. Then she thought it was Sis. Wachter who is supposed to call us for a dinner appointment. Diana wrote down the number and I called Sis. Roffler and clarified the appointment. We’ll see Sis. Roffler in church tomorrow.
We also got call from the AP’s to tell us Suki’s quit smoking party had been postponed until Monday night. It was really too late to get started visiting so we went to Schamendingenplatz to see if we could find a few things as well as buy some groceries. As we got off the tram we saw that a big garage sale type affair was in progress so we walked around the different booths. Diana got a few candle holders, a heavy little metal pitcher about 6 inches tall and I bought a neat spoon with a castle like thing in the spoon part. We met Isabel, a member from the ward, and talked with her for a few minutes. We then bought some groceries and went home because we had enough to pack for one trip. We didn’t have anything to do so we went back to look at more things, but they were in the middle of wrapping things up. We went back into COOP to look for more groceries and as we were browsing around, two workers came and told us to hurray and get out because they were closed. They finally let us buy the two things we had and when we tried to get out, it was blocked off. We stood around with another poor soul who violated the closing time until a worker came and showed us how to get out. Then we went home. After dinner we finished listing all of the members into their zip codes so now, when we want to visit, we’ll just google a map of the area and plot all of the members in a zip code onto the map. Well, we’d better get to bed and get ready for tomorrow. Good Night.
OCTOBER 26, 2008 SUNDAY
On Sunday our day starts early although today we got an extra hour because we adjusted our clocks one hour back for Daylight Savings. We went to the missionary correlation meeting and then to Sacrament Meeting. This meeting only lasted long enough for a few announcements and the Sacrament. Right after, a session of Conference was broadcast. On the General Conference weekend we here in Switzerland only got the Priesthood session and two sessions of conference. Today we got a third session, but I don’t know when, or if, we get the last session. I was particularly impressed with Elder Russell M.Nelson’s talk from the Quorum of the Twelve. It was on marriage and the family in which he expounded on principles taught in the Proclamation On The Family.
After the conference session we went home, had lunch and then took off to visit Schw. Bosshard in the care center. I thought I had brought the map to find her address with, but we decided to try and find it without help. However, when we were on the train I thought we just might double check to see if we were going right. I looked for the mao in my briefcase, but it wasn’t there. Whether we wanted to or not, we had to get there by memory. It worked out just fine; we didn’t have any trouble. We had a nice visit. Diana read a talk to Schw. Bosshard out of the Liahona given by Pres. Uchtdorf in the April 2008 conference. Schw. Bosshard says she really enjoys the visits by member because she gets to talk about the gospel. She said that Br. & Sis. Locher visit her once a month also.
After we got home we went to a fireside for the youth. Four returned Swiss missionaries talked to the youth about their experiences including funny ones as well as hard and spiritual ones. They talked about things they learned, the people they helped, the cultures, etc. One served in Russia, one in France, one in Germany and the sister served in the USA. At the end they each gave advice on how the youth should prepare to go on a mission. The bishopric member who conducted the meeting asked us if we wanted them to do it in high German rather than Swiss-German. We told him it was for the youth and they’d probably understand it better if it were in Swiss-German. Therefore, I didn’t understand a lot, only generally what they were talking about. I thought I would have been able to understand more, but I guess I’m not used to it enough yet. I tried to translate for Diana, but it was hard when I didn’t really catch enough to do it. Sorry, Diana.
I asked Bishop Schwendener if he would go over the member list that I had and indicate which members were active, less active or that he didn’t know. In the correlation meeting we had this morning it was kind of confusing because we had tried to visit a member that the ward mission leader was working with and, I think we need to be coordinated on what we are doing. Bishop Schwendener said he didn’t know a lot of the members on the list so he is going to go over it with all members of the bishopric Wednesday evening. He’ll then give us a copy so we’ll know who is active, whose not and who they don’t even know. Once we have that, we’ll start working on the unknowns and also the ones the bishop asks us specifically to visit. DL Elder Pine called tonight also to get our weekly report, but he also asked if it would be ok if the missionaries working in our ward could meet together after the District Meeting for a few minutes to coordinate what we’re all doing with members in the ward. We told him it would be a good idea to do that. The AP’s came over after the fireside to make sure they had all of the information on members that we’d discovered didn’t live at the addresses listed on the member list. They will send this information to the ward clerk so that this information can be used by the bishopric Wednesday evening to update the ward member list. Good stuff.
The Ap’s told us tonight they might have a line on corn syrup. The military has a PX in Stuttgard, Germany, that might carry corn syrup. They have contacted Elders up there who know some military people who will check the PX for them. If there is, Pres. Matern will be in Stuttgard next Thursday and will be able to bring it back for us by Friday sometime. It’ll be nip and tuck to get caramel made for the Halloween party because we have a baptism to go to in Schaffhausen at 2:00 Saturday. There will be no time for error, burned caramel etc. Hope it all works out.
So, here we are at the end of today, Diana is still working at getting beanbags made. She’s sewing them all by hand using cut up pieces of towel and filling them with rice. All’s well that ends well, and I hope it does.
Today started out as our P-day so we slept in a little to try and catch up on our sleep. Don’t think it worked. After breakfast we studied a little ,BM, and then went out exploring on the tram. We wanted to go to Zurichsee (Zurich Lake). It’s on the south end of Zurich. We intended to go to the end of the line, get out and ride a ferry back. We were disappointed because the tram didn’t go even to the Lake because of construction. So we rode the tram back to the other end of the line. We got out at the station and went down the escalator to where the trains go further out into the suburbs. We were trying to decide on whether we should try one of those and go somewhere or not. Just then Bishop Schwendener called on the cell phone and wanted to give us names of less-active members to go visit. I told him we’d be back in our apartment in about an hour where the member list was so that killed our exploration for today. We stopped on the way back and bought some groceries.
The bishop called us as we got back and gave us 6 names of less-active, part-member families and two who were members, but nobody had ever made contact with them. So we have a purpose for the next little while.
The Stake President, President Holt, sponsors a family home evening every Monday night for whoever wants to come, mostly the Assistants to the Mission President, investigators and those who need extra nurturing. We met Sister Suki Ehrensperger who is one of the ones bishop Schwendener gave us to visit. We got acquainted with her tonight and made an appointment to visit her next Friday.
Tried to get my emails tonight but it wouldn’t accept my password. I tried too many times and it locked me out. I don’t know what to do now. I guess I’ll ask Elder Eland tomorrow if he can fix it for me. Hope so.
Where does the time go? It’s already 11:20 p.m. Good Night!
Oct 7, 2008 Tuesday
This morning I got up early and tried to get the email thing fixed. I finally was able to change the password and get in. What a relief. We felt cut off from the world. All is well again. I find out the problem was that Roxsan got my passwords on my home computer mixed up and because she couldn’t get in she changed the password at home. Of course I didn’t know what she did and so I changed them over here again. I sent an email to her address and Monica’s and asked her not to do that any more because there is no way I can find out what she did unless I call her by phone or get it by snail mail.
The first thing we did today was go to the District Meeting. The DL, Elder Pine, conducted the meeting which consisted of opening song, opening prayer, a get to know you game where everyone wrote down name, hobbies, birth place, favorite this and that, and stuff like that. A “big prayer” was given which means each missionary companionship writes the names of investigators or anyone else on a prayer list and then one Elder acts as voice for a prayer for those people. Then came a workshop activity, a success experience (me), training on different ways of contacting, closing song and prayer (Diana). Diana said her prayer in German and the missionaries were very complimentary and I’m sure the Lord was too. All in all it was a spiritual meeting with very good training and support from everyone for each other.
After the meeting we went over to visit Sister Angela Campbell, a black lady with two boys older than 18 and two younger daughters, approx. 4 and 7. Her husband left her and we’ve been told she’s pretty down right now. She sat in front of us in Conference, but we didn’t know who she was then. She’s also not very active. She wasn’t home when we came, but Ricardo, her son answered the door. We gave him a flyer for the Book of Mormon Fireside President Matern is sponsoring next Sunday evening. We invited him to come and to make sure he gave the invitation to his mother. Later that evening I called her on the phone to see if we could visit with her sometime. She wouldn’t let us this week, but we’ll try next week. I gave her a personal invite to the fireside.
We then went back on the tram and tried to find the Kummer’s who are a family that comes to church about once a month and thinks that makes them active.. When we got up to the tram stop and got off, we realized I had only written down the directions and not the address. So we turned around and went home.
By then it was time to go to the English class the AP’s teach at the church. One other person came who was a member who has been inactive for the last 12 years, but wants to get back active again. We go so Diana can learn German while the others learn English. The AP’s (Elder Eland & Elder Evans) said there’s usually at least 4 or 5 people come to the class.
After class I spent the rest of the evening on the phone calling the Kummers (who said they would meet us in church Sunday), the Wachter’s (he’s a non-member, wife is a member), and Angela Campbell. Herr Wachter said his wife was out and to call her Saturday and set up an appointment. So, a lot of spinning wheels, but maybe some good will come out of it.
OCTOBER 8, 2008 WEDNESDAY
This morning we studied until the AP’s came over to bring us up to speed on the members in the ward. They said there wasn’t even a member list until a couple of months ago when they put one together. They have been trying to confirm all the names and addresses, but they haven’t been able to get it all done. We’ll see if we can help the work along. They said the ward mission leader is only part active and so doesn’t, of course, do a good job of it. He asked us to visit him also to help him along. Interesting. When they left, we spent some time looking up addresses and planned the way we could find them. All of the ones we were asked to visit are a long way away from here. We have to take the tram, transfer to bus, and for the farther ones, tranfer to a train. We did get to one elderly sister, Verena Bosshard, who lives in an old folks home. We finally got there at dinner time so we visited at her table until her meal came. We made arrangements to visit her on Sunday afternoon because she said she doesn’t get visits on Sunday. She seemed like a sweet old Grandma.
We made it back home by 7:30, cooked a frozen pizza (not good) and finished up the night studying and writing this journal. Well, Time to go.
OCTOBER 9, 200 THURSDAY
Diana made sure that we prepared a schedule so that we would complete everyday the things we should be doing. It begins at 8:00 with get up and get ready. At 8:30 we have individual study time. At 9:00 we have companion study for language and scriptures. At 10:00 we plan for the day which, for now, includes finding where members live on the map and plotting how to get there by tram, train or bus. Traveling takes a long time so we plan on visiting two or maybe three members a day. At 12:00 we have breakfast/lunch and at 1:00 pm we leave for our visits.
Today we wanted to visit Sister Roffler who is elderly and just lost her husband a few months ago. The Googlemaps got us to the right train station, but then would only give us walking directions. When we got to Bahnhof Stetten we saw that there were bus lines running everywhere. So we estimated where we should go and got on bus 752. We got off one stop past where we should have, but it wasn’t very far so I got out my handy dandy Tom Tom, plugged in the addresses and, you guessed it, went the wrong way. It had us going uphill and downhill and around in circles. We quit following it and it would tell us to turn around. We asked man picking apples in his yard and we followed his directions. Ypu, wrong way. We followed Tom Tom until we were tired and then Diana figured where we should be from the poor map we had. We finally found her home, but she wasn’t there. We left a note for her and said we’d call later. I called her later tonight and found out she was going away for a week to visit with her daughter and family. We had a good talk on the phone and we’ll meet her a week from Sunday in church.
We then managed to find an address where another member should have lived, but he’d moved or something. After that we rode a couple of trams around to figure out how to get to the other addresses in Dubendorf when we come back.
At Bahnhof Stetten I talked with a lady for approx. 15 minutes. She was fun to talk to, but she said she was Evangelisch and didn’t want to change. She accepted a passalong card though. Riding the tram I also was able to talk to a man who was very friendly and told us about the country. We introduced ourselves as missionaries and he said he’d heard of us and, in fact, had been in Utah. He accepted a passalong card and an invitation to come to the BM fireside Sunday afternoon. Who knows, maybe he’ll come. I tried to get him to let us come teach him, but he avoided that. I invited him to look up the lds.org address and, if he had questions, to call us.
When we got back to Bahnhof Stetten it was almost dark (7:30) so we came home. We had supper and now I’m catching up on the paper work while Diana is studying German. She is so determined to learn it, and she will. Diana is a trooper. She walked all over today without complaining once and we did hike all over. Well, tomorrow is a big day. I have to get up early and wash clothes and then get to the tri-zone conference by 8:55 am. To wash clothes we have to reserve the wash room. The only way to dry the clothes is to put them on clothes line there or bring them back to apartment and hang them up. No electric dryer. Zone conference lasts until 3:00 pm and after that we will visit Sister Suki Ehrensberger. She may have found a job. Well, Good night.
OCTOBER 10, 2008 FRIDAY
This morning I had to get up early and do our washing. We have to reserve a time in the community washroom. I woke up early, about 5:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep so I caught up some of our record-keeping. I can’t get on the computer word processing because it’s in the bedroom next to Diana’s side of the bed. Anyway, at 7:00 I took my wash over and tried to figure out how the machine worked. I finally got it going and then I noticed the directions hanging on the wall. I could have done it a lot faster if I had read them first. I was getting frantic because we had to be over to the Church at 8:55 for our zone conference and I didn’t want to be late. I got done just in time to hurry back, get ready and go.
The conference was a great one. All of the speakers were great as well as the missionaries who took part. Pres. Matern spoke on hope, faith and love. Without hope, we can’t have faith; without hope or faith, you can’t have love. But love brings hope and hope and love brings faith. This conference included two other zones because Elder Kearon, the Area Authority Seventy from England, and his wife were our guest speakers. They gave such wonderful and inspiring talks and Elder Kearon gave a lot of good training. Everyone there should have come away with an increased desire to be strictly obedient and energetic in the work.
After the conference we had an appointment with Suki Ehrensberger. We left on the tram, changed to train in the Zurich Bahnhof. We missed our train by 30 seconds and they don’t wait for anybody. We waited the ½ hour and went on our way. By this time we new we were going to be late. Diana got confused which our stop should be so she insisted we get off one too soon. After we got off we discovered our mistake so we had to wait another half hour for the next train. We didn’t waste the time, however, because an older gentleman was standing there and after he helped us I talked to him for about 15 minutes about the Church and the Book of Mormon. His last name was Oertler. He said he had been in Salt Lake and new about the Church. When asked if he knew of the Book of Mormon he said he had one. At my question he said he hadn’t read much and it was home in his drawer. I explained why it’s important, and invited him to get it out and read 3rd Nephi about Christ’s visit to America. I tried to get his address so we could come explain it to him. No dice. We then invited him (gave him a flyer) to the BM fireside Sunday evening at 5:00 pm. Who knows, maybe he and his wife will come. He knew where our ward building is.
We finally got to Suki’s place. She’s a humble sister whose trying hard and needs support and friends. She’s alone here in Switzerland, but her daughter (lives in England) and her step daughter who lives here somewhere but not close come to visit her. She said they are both not members, but are being taught. The step daughter sometimes comes to Church with her. We gave her an inpromtu lesson and left a prayer in her home. She insisted on driving us home in her car rather than having us ride the train. By car it was only 10 minutes; by train/tram it’s about an hour if we make connections and don’t get lost.
Well, we got home and I ironed my shirts and then we studied German some more by reading scriptures. It is already 10:17 pm. Where does the time go? I still need to write Justin and Jett a letter as well as one to Jackie Gelo, our neighbor at home who we were fellowshipping and one to Kathy Owens, a non-member neighbor friend who moved away to Ohio. Anyway, they’ll have to wait for another day. Good Night.
OCTOBER 11, 2008 SATURDAY
Today we did our usual morning routine; got up, personal study, companion language/scripture study, plan the day as well as how to get to the homes (tram, trains, bus and feet), then breakfast/brunch. At 1:00 we pray and begin our finding/visits. Of course we are still working on the names Bishop Wichterman gave us to search out and visit. The first name was Julia Nunez who he hadn’t met and didn’t know. We found her and she acknowledged she was a member, but she didn’t speak very good German. Both she and her husband spoke Italian. I left her an invitation to come to the BM fireside tomorrow evening. Bishop Wichterman also gave us the name of her Mother-in-law, Olga de Las. She said Olga moved back to Chile in South America.
Marcel Baldegger came to the door with a cigarette in his mouth and said he was a member only because his mother wanted him to be, not because he wanted to. He said he had no interest. We tried Karl Fluder who was not home. We left a note for him that we’d try to visit him later. These visits took most of the afternoon so we started home about 6:00 pm. On the way we stopped at the shopping mall Centrum Platt to take a BM to Marc Boetschi but he wasn’t there. He’s the one who sold us our Transport Pass. We’ll try to catch him next week. We had to buy some copy paper and a small gift to take to Sister Verena Bosshard, the blind elderly sister who lives in the assisted living home. Then we went home. By this time we were dead tired again.
In spite of that I had to complete our progress report for our correlation meeting in the morning. I wanted to do it in German for bishop Wichterman so it took me three hours to get it done. Someway the computer goofed it up so it took me an extra hour to figure it out without having to recreate the report out of my notes again. We finally got to bed at 10:30. That’s the end of this sad story. Good Night.
OCTOBER 12, 2008 SUNDAY
We didn’t have time for our normal morning routine because our day starts with correlation meeting at the ward at 8:30. This may change because Elder Eland said we may be invited to the meeting before the correlation meeting. I’m not sure what this one is , but I’m sure it’s important. I thought we would be asked to report on our week’s activities, but was not. The Ward Mission Leader, Marcel Daehler, said there wasn’t time. Elder Eland asked to see our report so I gave him a copy. He seemed very impressed by what we had accomplished during the week because he said, “Wow.” I asked him if that’s what we should be doing and he replied yes. We are still feeling our way in what our focus should be as a couple missionary.
After this meeting came Priesthood/Relief Society, Sunday School and then Sacrament meeting. Today was fast meeting and I was the first up to bear testimony. I wanted the members to know Diana and I have testimonies and are glad to be here serving a mission among them.
After church Diana and I traveled to Basserdorf to visit sister Bosshard. She is a sweet lady who loves the Lord and her fellowmen. For example, her roommate probably has Alzheimers, can’t talk except to scream “clean” when she messes her pants or just screams. When asked if she could request to stay with someone else, she said somebody has to be her roommate and she gets along OK. She said she feels the lady appreciates her even though she can’t express it. Since sister Bosshard is mostly blind and can’t read, I read a story out of “The Liahona” for her as well as an article of Elder Uchtdorf’s quotes. We left her some cookies; she gave us two pears as we left to go home.
By the way, when we got to Basserdorf, we had to walk because the tram that we took before doesn’t run on Sundays. We set out on foot and were going the right way, but we decided we had to go up a little so we took a sidewalk that we shouldn’t have. Fortunately we saw a man and asked direction and he pointed us the right way. We probably walked an extra ten minutes is all. We took the right way back and it only took us 10 minutes to get to the station to take the train back home. While we waited for the train, Diana was so hungry we decided to pray over our two pears and break our fast. We were eating our pears when it looked like our train was coming so we hurriedly tried to finish them in time, but threw a little in the garbage. This hurt because we wanted to eat them down to the last morsel. Wrong train! Ours came a little later. We got back with a few minutes to spare so we went home, did what was necessary, got a drink and had a few bites then went back to the Church for a BM fireside presented by Pres. Matern. There were a lot of people there, mostly members and missionaries, but a few investigators. After the lecture there were refreshments in the cultural hall where people mingled. Refreshments were pretzel sticks, small crackers and punch. Diana had a good time talking with Nadi, an investigator being taught by Elders Eland and Evans, and Sister Matern, the President’s wife. Nadi comes to the FHE at Pres. Bolt’s home on Monday evening and this time she has the spiritual thought, which is a new experience for her.
I was worried about not remembering to give Bishop Wichterman our report because it was he who asked us to visit the ones we had. He was there at the fireside so I gave him a verbal report. He also gave the Ward Mission Leader more names for us to visit, but we didn’t get them from him. I called Bro. Daehler to get the names, but he wasn’t home. His wife said to call him tomorrow.
Well, home again and we’re pooped. Chicken pattie on a bun for supper. For desert we had one little cookie each. I also cooked some carrots which are still on the stove. I think I’ll have some and then go to bed. Good Night.
OCTOBER 14, 2008 MONDAY
This morning was the usual routine except today was P-day where we can do what we want. Of course we need to study the language/scriptures, so we did. I wrote a lot of emails to catch up our correspondence. I also wrote a letter to Justin hoping I can reach him and get him to come back to the Church. I wrote a letter to little Jett also. I wrote a letter to Jackie Gelo to encourage her to listen to the missionaries and also to lift her spirits because she’s been ill again.
At 1:30 we met Fabian and he took us grocery shopping at the COOP store rather than Migros. All the same stuff. It helped Diana to understand how to read labels and understand what things were. It also helped Fabian feel like he was helping us which is always good to feel like you are being of service to someone.
We checked in at home with the groceries and then went to the POST to mail Justin’s letter. We also looked for street maps of the towns (suburbs) we are working in. Then we went home to prepare to go to a teaching appointment with Elder Elend and Evans. Elder Elend went with President Bolt and Diana and I went to the appt. with Elder Evans. This brother has been away from the Church for 12 years, was molested as a child which causes him problems, but wants to come back. We taught the lesson about the Atonement and his stumbling block is to forgive the perpetrator. He is going to meet with Bishop Wichterman Sunday to start working on the process. The progress of this man falls under the jurisdiction of the Ward and not the Mission, but the Elders can teach him.
After that came the FHE at the Bolt’s home. This time some of the same people were there but Nada, the investigator, wasn’t. I think she may have got scared because she was assigned by Pres. Bolt to give the spiritual thought this time. Anyway, the evening went good, our game, two lies and a truth, was fun, and we came home.
OCTOBER 14, 2008 TUESDAY
After our normal daily routine we went to our weekly district meeting. These meetings are kind of fun and a lot of good training happens as well as spiritual and uplifting testimonies and shared experiences. The game we played was patterned after the parable of the girl who lost a silver coin and she had to find it because it was part of her dowry and she couldn’t get married without it. I’ll have to look up the scripture in the New Testament. Every Elder hid in the church somewhere with only one elder left behind (hide and seek). But when the one looking found someone, both would look and everyone then would help until the last one was found. A lot of fun.
After the meeting I cut the hair of two elders. I tried to use the power converter here in the apartment and it blew the breaker. I tried to use it again at the church so I could use my own clippers, but it blew the breaker again. Elder Larsson (from Sweden) looked at it and found that it converts exactly opposite of what I need here. It goes converts 110 V to 220V. No wonder it blew the breakers. I’ll have to go find one tomorrow because I’ve made an appointment to cut the hair of Elder Pine and Elder Holbrook tomorrow night.
After that we came home and spent the rest of the afternoon looking up addresses of members to visit and plotting them on a map. Tomorrow we’ll attempt to visit as many as we can. At 6:30 we went to the weekly English class taught by the missionaries. This time Elders Pine and Holbrook came because the Ap’s were busy. This time Dora Wachter and Cinthya Frioud came. Cinthya is active, but her husband is not. Dora is semi-active and her husband is a non-member. Dora Wachter is a member who bishop Wichterman gave us last week to visit. I called her home last week twice, but her husband said she wasn’t home and to call back. The Lord works in mysterious ways to accomplish his work! Who knew that she would be in the English class tonight. Elder Elend said she’d only been one other time a couple months ago. Diana is so good with people. She made friends with both of them and invited Dora to church so she could have someone to sit with whom she knew. We made an appointment to visit her next Saturday. I’ll be a good opportunity for Diana and Dora to teach each other the language. We came back home after, had our meager dinner, me saurkraut/ham sandwich and Diana a ham sandwich and dried apple slices. I put some more wheat out to soak to cook for breakfast. Study time, journal, then to bed. Good Night!
OCTOBER 15, 2008
Today started out with preparation, study etc. By Noon we were on the road (tram, train) so to speak, out to meet members in the Schwerzenbach area. Before we were through today, we had walked our legs off. Mostly members were not at home, but we left a note of introduction and that we would call back or telephone for an appointment. On the back of the note was a flyer for a fireside Friday evening on the people of Central America in book of Mormon times. Maybe some of them will come.
The bishop sent us specifically to the Sigrist family. Sister Sigrist invited us in and promptly told us that her husband would not be pleased for us to be there. She had asked that no one from the church visit there. She said if he had been there, we would have had a fight on our hands. Anyway, she was very nice and she, at least, comes now and then to church meetings and, she said, she likes to meet with the sisters. I relayed the information to the bishop later this evening.
The addresses of two members were either incorrect or they had moved without forwarding addresses. It takes so long to walk between the members’ homes. But, what else have we to do. It would be nice to have a car, but, too expensive to buy, nowhere to park in town and gas is also way expensive. Who can afford $10.00 a gallon?
I’m stioll trying to find a converter from 220v. To 110v. We stopped at Migros, but they didn’t have one, but Diana found plaster and spray paint. Now she’s happy because she can make sunstones. She’s already made a couple.
Barely made it back in time for the appointment to cut the District leaders hair. Fortunately there was a pair of clippers left here in the apartment that I can use. They looked pretty good when I was finished.
Home, supper and to bed. Good Night.
OCTOBER 16, 2008 THURSDAY
This morning I got up to do a load of wash because nobody had reserved the time for this morning, but when I got to the washroom, someone had their clothes already in the washer. So I’ll wait for tomorrow to do the wash. After early morning stuff, we located the other person Bishop Schwendener gave us to visit and then plotted the homes of all the other members who lived in the area on the map. At 1:00 we were just leaving our apartment to make our visits when Elder Evans called us. They and the District Leaders wanted to meet with us to see if we could brainstorm and come up with an activity or something to do with the ward members to get hem energized to do member missionary work. It was raining heavily outside and they couldn’t do the street contacting activity they had planned on.
We came up with a lot of ideas, but some would take a lot of time to plan and carry out. We decided to do something quick which is to prepare a Halloween celebration, Trick or Trunk, bobbing for apples, eating donuts off a string, spook alley, being blind-folded and be required to eat something out of a bowl, etc. The AP’s were going to talk to the bishop and see if he would approve and, if possible, invite other wards to participate. We’ll see what happens. We also made a commitment to say a prayer every morning at 7:00 and every evening before bed and include three things. 1st pray for the people who are looking for the truth to find the missionaries. 2nd pray for the missionaries to find those who are looking for the truth. 3rd pray for the members to have a missionary experience every day. We also include what Pres. Monson asked us to do and that is to pray for the countries not open yet for missionary work to open their borders for proselyting.
After the Elders left we went on our way, in spite of the rain, to visit Margrith Maurer in Opfikon. We found her address, but found that she had moved. I called later this evening and the phone number had been discontinued. It was raining really hard by this time and, we decided, people would not like to let us in to visit soaking wet, so we went home. On the way we stopped at Migros again for some groceries. You can’t buy everything at once because it would be too difficult to carry on the tram.
I fixed a decent meal tonight with chicken, noodles, mushrooms and a sauce to go with it. Pretty good. Now I’m doing reports and journal while Diana is studying. Time for me to quit. Good Night!
OCTOBER 17, 2008 FRIDAY
After our prayer, prep/study time, we went out to meet the members who had we plotted out on our map. We didn’t get to talk to a single member except at one house, Bro. & Sis. David Ryser who are active, one of their kids were home, but the parents weren’t so we couldn’t visit. It took us about an hour of walking to find the Ryser’s home, so it was disappointing that we didn’t get to visit. Monteiro and Ebuluofer had moved. We found Jaeger’s address, but it was the Hotel Hilton. We went to the desk and asked if we had the right address, and the clerk said that Jaeger had worked there , but didn’t any more. So, dead end.
We stopped at the COOP, another grocery store, to look around while waiting for the tram and found a little bundt cake for $1.65. This is the cheapest goodie we have found anywhere since we have been here. We need to provide the dessert for FHE next Monday night. One bundt cake will feed probably 4 or 5 people (with whipped cream and a dollop of ice cream). We tried it and it was really pretty good. We hope our guests will like it. The only thing is, we need to go back tomorrow and see if there are any left.
We got home in time to rest a little and then to the Church for the fireside on Central America. They showed a DVD of photos while a sister provided the dialog. It covered a major city in a lot of the Central and So. American countries. There were some slides of the Mayan ruins, but mostly it looked like vacation photos of interesting people, buildings, and landscape while the narrator talked of customs, buildings and some Book of Mormon related things. Anyway, not quite like we thought it would be, because it was billed as Book of Mormon related fireside.
It was interesting and a lot of people came to see it.
Home and to bed.
OCTOBER 18, 2008 SATURDAY
I did my ironing this morning and then at 10:00 this morning we were at a Young Single Adult Activity in which there were some opening talks and then breakouts into three separate rooms for individual discussions on different topics. One was on the Book of Mormon led by Pres. Matern; one was on the Bread of Life (can’t remember the brother’s name); and th other on Come Unto Me (lead by Sis. Wichteman). We only had time to stay for one and then we had to go. We wanted to buy those Bundt cakes before they were gone, and we had an appointment to visit Sister Wachter at 3:00. The cakes were still there and we bought 10 of them, enough for FHE and the next District Meeting.
We got on the bus with, what we thought was plenty of time to get to the Wachters, but things happen. We took the tram to Stettbach, got off and waited for our bus 752. We talked to a lady while waiting and it was a good conversation. I tried to give her a BM, but she said she doesn’t read much and also didn’t want the missionaries to come by. When our bus came, we got on, but it just moved forward a ways and then stopped. Still at the bahnhof. We waited and waited for it to go, but it just stayed there. The public transit system is very punctual over here and I couldn’t understand why it didn’t go because it was 20 minutes behind schedule. Finally it took off, but when we should have turned one way for our stop, it turned another. Unbeknownst to us, the bus changed its number to 743 when it moved up a little ways. So, we got off at the next stop, got our bearings, and walked to Sis. Wachter’s home. We were only 30 minutes late, but what a hassle. Diana still runs pretty good! Another lesson learned. Make sure what bus you’re on.
We had a very good visit with Sis. Wachter, her husband and 14 year old son. Her husband isn’t a member, but I asked him anyway “why.” He gave the usual answer that he was raised in another church and didn’t want to change. We still had a good visit and he asked us to come back again. It’ll just be good to fellowship and, who knows, maybe down the line things may change.
We came back home, this time it took only 30 minutes to get here. We’re waiting for the AP’s to pick us up for a dinner appointment with Sister Suki Ehrensberger who just needs support right now. They picked us up and we arrived for the dinner/teaching appointment on time. The dinner was pork chops, a yummy salad, hot vegetable dish, rice w/sauce and then dessert of a chocolate cake covered banana roll with ice cream. It was superb. After that came the lesson which was on giving up smoking. The Elder’s presented the 15 step program for Suki. She had already made the commitment to quit smoking so she started the 15 step program tonight. The first step was to sign a contract with herself and the Lord that she would quit smoking and follow the program. Some of the 15 steps are: 1. pray every morning 1st thing; 2. brush teeth; 3. eat good breakfast; 4. brush teeth; 5. throw away every cigaret and tobacco related objects (ash trays, lighters, etc.); 6. Take 1500mg vitamin C every day; 7. Put up notes to remind her not to smoke; 8. Have healthy snacks between meals; 9 write down what triggers smoking; 10. Tell all her friends that she’s stopping smoking and to help her; 11. After each meal drink orange or grapefruit juice; 12. After meals and teeth brushing use mouthwash, the nastier tasting the better; 13. When urge to smoke, get fresh air in lungs by taking a short walk, breathing deeply etc.; 14. have a list of things to do when getting urge to smoke; 15. Call her support group anytime night or day when feeling weak or depressed (one of her triggers). Time for bed. Our first meeting tomorrow is at 8:00. Good Night.
OCTOBER 19, 2008
We were up and at ‘em early this morning because we, as a district, pray every morning at 7:00 and we had our first correlation meeting at, we thought, 8:00. It should have been, but everyone but us was late. The meeting finally started and we went over all the missionary activities. This week there was enough time for us to go over our activities for the last two weeks. We also received another name from the bishop of a less active member who he wants us to visit. Sister Wachter was in church today as well as Suki. It was good to see them both there. Sister Wachter said her husband wants us to come for dinner one night, so me asking him why he wasn’t a member must not have offended him. Sister Helena Roffler was also back from her vacation and introduced herself to us. She said she was going to be busy for awhile, but took our phone number and will call us when she has time for a visit.
After church we went home and had lunch and Diana suggested we go visit Heather Scheidegger, the name the bishop gave us to visit this week. We plotted our route through Google and went on our merry way. We were going just fine, right tram, but then the tram left its normal route and took off on another direction. Diana kept saying, “we’re going the wrong way over and over again.” Come to find out construction caused a detour. After studying our map, we finally figured out how to go where we wanted. It’s always an adventure.
We caught them home and had a nice visit. She said she was not active and didn’t intend to get active. Rolf, her husband, said he had no interest in the church either. They said they come to meetings/activities a few times a year and that was enough for them. We asked if we could come visit them once in awhile especially when we needed to see a friendly face, and they said we could. On the way out Diana mentioned that maybe we could play some games and Heather responded they would like to teach us the card game of Golf. I think we know that game. So, we’ll try to make friends and love them into the Church.
At a tram stop on the way home we met a man from Thun and talked with him about the Church. He thought we didn’t believe in Christ or that he would come a 2nd time. We taught him what we believed and tried to give him a Book of Mormon, but he refused it. Well, we made it home, but as we traveled around this afternoon, we did get to see a little more of the countryside. It’s a pretty country once you get outside the city. Well, time for prayer and bedtime. Good Night!
OCTOBER 20, 2008 MONDAY
Prayer at 7:00 and then I vacuumed the house while Diana slept in a little. She gets pretty tired walking around all the time. Diana got up and I helped her finish cleaning the house for FHE tonight. After we got done Diana decided we’d go look for the chocolate place so I googled it up and found it. Then we plotted the route and took off. Everything went well until at the bus stop two buses were listed to go to Kirchberg which was our stop so we flipped a coin and got on one. You guessed it, wrong one. We rode it to the end and came back and got off where we thought we should go. Nope, had to go back the way we came. We were discussing where to get off when a lady asked us where we were going. We told her as we came to a bus stop and she said , ”follow me, get off here.” We explained again we were looking for the chocolate outlet store and wouldn’t you know it, she was going to the same one. But, she had a car and asked us if we wanted to ride with her. She took us right there. I had already given away my BM so I gave her a pamphlet about the Church. We bought some chocolate things, some for tonight, and went home. During this going back and forth, we were at a bus stop and began talking with a young lady. Of course we talked about the Church and ended up giving her a Book of Mormon. We have our name, phone number and the Church address stamped in the front. Hopefully someday we’ll get a call or see someone in Church who we’ve given a BM to. After that we went up to Centrum Glatt to get a few things, but also to check and see if Markus Boetschi was at work. He was and so we were finally able to give him a BM. He promised to read it and we promised we’d be back to talk to him again in a couple of weeks.
Home again to wait for 7:00 for FHE. This time Elders Elend & Evans, Suki and Rolf , the one we gave the lesson on the Atonement to, came. We had a good time playing “spoons” as well as a good spiritual lesson given by Suki. Dessert was also good. The Elders made another appointment with Rolf Hediger for tomorrow because he’s quitting smoking as well as trying to get his life back in order to become a member of the Church in good standing. The meeting is going to be at our home. We are also beginning a fast for Fabian Streit who is meeting with the bishop tomorrow night to see if he can receive the Aaronic Priesthood. And now it’s time for bed. Good Night!
OCTOBER 21, 2008 TUESDAY
Today began as usual, prayer at 7:00 and so on. We got a call around 11:00 from the AP’s saying that Rolf had canceled his appointment at 2:00 p.m., but they still wanted to meet with us to finalize the activities/events for the Halloween party on Nov. 1. We studied German/scriptures until about noon and then we got on the internet to find Halloween stuff. We printed off a lot of ideas and they were very helpful when the Elders came. We think we got everything planned, but a lot of coordinating needs to get done before Nov. 1. The Elders are going to talk with the bishops of the other two wards to make assignments and also to organize the missionaries. We said we’d make caramel apples and suckers, if they could find corn syrup. We said we’d also make cookies and a cake for the cake walk.
After that meeting we prepared for then went to the interview with President Matern. We talked about things in general, about how things were going and he asked us if we had our dryer yet. We told him all was going well and that we were going to come to the mission home tomorrow to talk to sister Klaumunzner about the dryer and Sister Sunke about verification of the health insurance. He then mentioned several things he may ask us to do. One was to help get two apartments ready that they were renting for missionaries. Second, to be prepared to teach new member missionary lessons to a couple that will be baptized probably November 1st. If it happens on the first, we may have to go to the baptism instead of the Halloween party. Third, he said we may be asked to cover the phones at the mission home occasionally. Fourth, next month he plans on visiting the missionary apartments to conduct the missionary interviews while his wife inspects the condition of the apartments. They do this every other interview. If they think we can fix problems they discover, they’ll ask us to go and fix them. Other than that, he said to keep on doing what we’re doing. He seemed very pleased with what we’re doing and with the reports we gave him. Diana and I just want to do what he wants us to do, anywhere where we can be of service.
After the interview we dashed home to break our fast for Fabian and then back again to the church for English class. Sister Wachter didn’t come because it was reported she had back pain. Too bad, we were looking forward to seeing her. A German tutor came and got Sister Frioud, an active member learning English, out of the class to go teach her German. After the English class Diana went looking for Sis. Frioud and her tutor to see if she could sit in. We found them and yes, we were able to sit in. After that class was over, I talked some with Bishop Schwendener while Diana talked with Esther Ryser, one of the people who we tried to visit last week, but wasn’t home. After that we went home. Diana studied her material to give her German tip in District meeting tomorrow while I finished this journal entry.
OCTOBER 22, 2008 WEDNESDAY
Up at 7:00 for prayer and then get ready and all that stuff. We had District meeting this morning at 10:30 and we had to do some prep things to get ready for the gme and Diana’s German language tip. We walked over to the COOP store and got some gummi O’s and pretzel sticks for the game and then went back to the Church to wait for the Elders. I still had time to make a “Helium Stick” out of rolled up news papers for a different game. We ended up playing this one because four Elders had to leave before we got to the game. You play this game by standing in two rows facing each other. Each person puts out one finger, fingernail side up and the Helium stick is laid across them so it goes horizontally between them resting on the backs of their fingers. The trick is for them to keep their fingers in touch with the rod, without pinching it or grabbing it, and lowering it to the ground. It’s hard to do and the stick actually rises because the pressure from the fingers with them trying to keep in touch with the stick applies more pressure than the weight of the stick. Well, as you can guess, they tried and tried to lower it, but it wouldn’t go down.
I am amazed at the spiritual lessons these Elders give. They are the best of the best and I can believe they are warriors in God’s Army. There’s a standard format that Elder Pine uses in organizing the meeting. He chooses a theme for the meeting and then makes assignments center on that theme. One Elder is assigned the opening prayer and chooses the song; one has the spiritual thought, one has a tip on learning the German language, one has a game, one is voice for the Big Prayer, one teaches how to memorize a scripture, one gives a success story, Elder Pine gives a lesson on the theme, and one chooses the closing song and gives the prayer. Today he added a new topic and that was for each to tell of a good thing that happened during the week that wasn’t missionary related. This is an effort to help the missionaries get better acquainted with each other. Overall it’s just a fantastic meeting.
After the meeting we went home, had lunch, and then went to the mission home to take that government request for health insurance verification to Sister Sunke and also to talk to Sister Klaumunzner about getting a clothes dryer. All went well except Sis. Klaumunzner went home early and wasn’t there. We left a note and I’ll call her tomorrow and see how she wants to do this. On the way home we stopped at the Zurich Bahnhof to see if we could get some better maps from the Visitor Info Office, but none was available. So, we got on the tram to come home, but we saw a bigger COOP store and stopped to see if we could find some corn syrup. No dice. They said maybe Jemoli’s carried it so we’ll look there. We also stopped at the post office to mail the Sanpete property quit claim deed to our attorneys so they could finish the Larson Family Trust. So that basically ended our day after we got home except we had supper, writing journals and reports and studying. Tomorrow we’ll be out locating less-active members again and, I hope it’ll quit raining by then. Rain yesterday and today after I bragged on how nice this fall weather has been.
Oh, today we received notice in our box that they tried to deliver a package (Roxsan’s) while we were not home. I called and they said they’ll try and deliver it tomorrow before noon. We should be here.
OCTOBER 23, 2008 THURSDAY
Prayer at 7:00 and normal stuff except at about 10:30 our package arrived. It had some cute letters from our Rees, Drayson, May, Jade, and Robert. The Halloween decorations were great as well as some names and addresses of members I knew from my first mission. I also got a belt and my other name tag.
After we got the names of the less active members of those we planned to visit plotted on the map, we went out searching. It was pretty cold today, but not raining. We never know beforehand what we’re going to find in the way of country, suburbs or city, but this time we ended up in the city. We walked around looking for addresses and finally found some. It’s hard because the bottom floors are businesses and the upper floors are residences. You have to be very observant to find some of them. We only talked to one person who said she attended a black church but we invited her and her family to the Halloween party on Nov. 1st. Her son was standing there and we invited him too. After, we asked ourselves if we had really talked to the member or not. Only one person in the home is a member. We’ll have to try again and make sure we got the right one.
As we were trying to find an address we realized we were at the store where we met Markus Nussbaumer to whom we had given a Book of Mormon. So we went in to see him, but he wasn’t at work. This is where I bought a P-day shirt a couple of weeks ago. They were still on sale so I bought another one because one was not enough. The clothes dryer was still there, but I guess Sister Klaumunzner must not like it because she hadn’t bought it for us yet. I called her today to make sure she had the information she needed. I clarified some things for her and so she’ll again try to find us one that she likes and will work for us. There isn’t much else to talk about so that’s it for tonight.
OCTOBER 24, 2008 FRIDAY
This morning we got a call from Sister Klaumunzner about our clothes dryer. She said it had been ordered and would be delivered sometime next Tuesday. She didn’t know the time, but she said they usually call before they deliver. This is a District meeting day at 10:30 a.m. every week. We hope it doesn’t interfere with the meeting because we enjoy those meetings.
This morning we spent organizing the names into Zip Codes so it’s easier plotting addresses on a google map. After brunch, we went out to visit again. Two of the members evidently had moved because their names were not on the mailboxes. Two were not home and we couldn’t leave flyers for the Halloween party because the outer doors were locked and the mailboxes were inside. We tried to find one sister in an old folks home, but she had moved. I asked one of the workers if he knew where she had gone. He took me to an office and used the computer to try and find out. As he was looking I talked to him about the Church. He said he had heard of the Mormons and, when I asked him if he had a BM, he said he did once, but didn’t now. I told him I happened to have one with me and did he want one. He said he was very interested in having one, so I gave it to him. I asked him if we could visit him at home and talk to him about it, but he just wanted our names and phone number. If he doesn’t call, we’ll go back and see if we can talk to him. It seems like we give out BM’s, but don’t get to follow up much. Besides this one, we gave BM’s to the store clerk, Markus Nussbaumer, and haven’t caught him at work to follow up; and Markus Boetschi, the one who we bought our transportation passes from, we finally caught at work and gave a BM to him. That happened just a few days ago. We’ll try and catch him at work next week and see if he has read any in it.
We continued to visit members so at the next house that we knocked on, a young lady came to the door. I introduced us and she said that her husband was in the shower and that they didn’t have time for a visit and they’d see us in church Sunday and make an appointment with us. We were discussing this as we walked back down the sidewalk that they were probably active members. We’re so new in the ward that we don’t really know names of very many of the active members. We just plot names on our map and go visit. As we were going away Diana thought she recognized another lady on a doorstep as an active member. Sure enough, she looked up and called to us. It was Rita Wichterman, the just released bishop’s wife. She invited us in and we had a good visit with her and Bishop Urs Wichterman. She had just made donuts and she gave us one. She is going to make donuts for the Halloween party. We plan to use them tied on a string and the kids have to eat them off not using any hands. We are still trying to find corn syrup to buy so we can make carmel apples for the Halloween party. Bro. Wichterman has a bakery so we thought he might use corn syrup. When asked, he had no idea what corn syrup is. He gave us a couple of businesses that might carry it, and then Sis. Wichterman called an American family who might know where to buy it. I talked to her husband on the phone and he said they had some, but they had to bring it with them from USA. He didn’t know if his wife wanted to part with any of hers. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow at Priesthood Meeting. We checked out the two stores that Urs referred us to, but they didn’t know what corn syrup was either. So home for the rest of the night.
OCTOBER 25, 2008 SATURDAY
This morning I went to Stake Priesthood Meeting and Diana stayed home. We had a great meeting with the theme changing to become like Christ. The first half of the meeting was directed at the youth and the second half at the MP. Also the Temple President and his wife were present and they bid them goodbye because they are being released pretty soon. While I was at Priesthood meeting Diana did her usual morning routine plus worked at hand sewing some bean bags for the bean bag toss at the Halloween party Saturday. She also continued working at making sunstones. She’s making sunstones to give to people along the way. She gave one to Suki when we went over to dinner last week. While I was gone, Sis. Roffler called to invite us to lunch on Monday. It was a new experience for Diana to answer the phone. Diana thought it was the member, Sis. Locher, who was with us at Suki’s but it really was Sis. Roffler who we had tried to visit a couple weeks ago. Then she thought it was Sis. Wachter who is supposed to call us for a dinner appointment. Diana wrote down the number and I called Sis. Roffler and clarified the appointment. We’ll see Sis. Roffler in church tomorrow.
We also got call from the AP’s to tell us Suki’s quit smoking party had been postponed until Monday night. It was really too late to get started visiting so we went to Schamendingenplatz to see if we could find a few things as well as buy some groceries. As we got off the tram we saw that a big garage sale type affair was in progress so we walked around the different booths. Diana got a few candle holders, a heavy little metal pitcher about 6 inches tall and I bought a neat spoon with a castle like thing in the spoon part. We met Isabel, a member from the ward, and talked with her for a few minutes. We then bought some groceries and went home because we had enough to pack for one trip. We didn’t have anything to do so we went back to look at more things, but they were in the middle of wrapping things up. We went back into COOP to look for more groceries and as we were browsing around, two workers came and told us to hurray and get out because they were closed. They finally let us buy the two things we had and when we tried to get out, it was blocked off. We stood around with another poor soul who violated the closing time until a worker came and showed us how to get out. Then we went home. After dinner we finished listing all of the members into their zip codes so now, when we want to visit, we’ll just google a map of the area and plot all of the members in a zip code onto the map. Well, we’d better get to bed and get ready for tomorrow. Good Night.
OCTOBER 26, 2008 SUNDAY
On Sunday our day starts early although today we got an extra hour because we adjusted our clocks one hour back for Daylight Savings. We went to the missionary correlation meeting and then to Sacrament Meeting. This meeting only lasted long enough for a few announcements and the Sacrament. Right after, a session of Conference was broadcast. On the General Conference weekend we here in Switzerland only got the Priesthood session and two sessions of conference. Today we got a third session, but I don’t know when, or if, we get the last session. I was particularly impressed with Elder Russell M.Nelson’s talk from the Quorum of the Twelve. It was on marriage and the family in which he expounded on principles taught in the Proclamation On The Family.
After the conference session we went home, had lunch and then took off to visit Schw. Bosshard in the care center. I thought I had brought the map to find her address with, but we decided to try and find it without help. However, when we were on the train I thought we just might double check to see if we were going right. I looked for the mao in my briefcase, but it wasn’t there. Whether we wanted to or not, we had to get there by memory. It worked out just fine; we didn’t have any trouble. We had a nice visit. Diana read a talk to Schw. Bosshard out of the Liahona given by Pres. Uchtdorf in the April 2008 conference. Schw. Bosshard says she really enjoys the visits by member because she gets to talk about the gospel. She said that Br. & Sis. Locher visit her once a month also.
After we got home we went to a fireside for the youth. Four returned Swiss missionaries talked to the youth about their experiences including funny ones as well as hard and spiritual ones. They talked about things they learned, the people they helped, the cultures, etc. One served in Russia, one in France, one in Germany and the sister served in the USA. At the end they each gave advice on how the youth should prepare to go on a mission. The bishopric member who conducted the meeting asked us if we wanted them to do it in high German rather than Swiss-German. We told him it was for the youth and they’d probably understand it better if it were in Swiss-German. Therefore, I didn’t understand a lot, only generally what they were talking about. I thought I would have been able to understand more, but I guess I’m not used to it enough yet. I tried to translate for Diana, but it was hard when I didn’t really catch enough to do it. Sorry, Diana.
I asked Bishop Schwendener if he would go over the member list that I had and indicate which members were active, less active or that he didn’t know. In the correlation meeting we had this morning it was kind of confusing because we had tried to visit a member that the ward mission leader was working with and, I think we need to be coordinated on what we are doing. Bishop Schwendener said he didn’t know a lot of the members on the list so he is going to go over it with all members of the bishopric Wednesday evening. He’ll then give us a copy so we’ll know who is active, whose not and who they don’t even know. Once we have that, we’ll start working on the unknowns and also the ones the bishop asks us specifically to visit. DL Elder Pine called tonight also to get our weekly report, but he also asked if it would be ok if the missionaries working in our ward could meet together after the District Meeting for a few minutes to coordinate what we’re all doing with members in the ward. We told him it would be a good idea to do that. The AP’s came over after the fireside to make sure they had all of the information on members that we’d discovered didn’t live at the addresses listed on the member list. They will send this information to the ward clerk so that this information can be used by the bishopric Wednesday evening to update the ward member list. Good stuff.
The Ap’s told us tonight they might have a line on corn syrup. The military has a PX in Stuttgard, Germany, that might carry corn syrup. They have contacted Elders up there who know some military people who will check the PX for them. If there is, Pres. Matern will be in Stuttgard next Thursday and will be able to bring it back for us by Friday sometime. It’ll be nip and tuck to get caramel made for the Halloween party because we have a baptism to go to in Schaffhausen at 2:00 Saturday. There will be no time for error, burned caramel etc. Hope it all works out.
So, here we are at the end of today, Diana is still working at getting beanbags made. She’s sewing them all by hand using cut up pieces of towel and filling them with rice. All’s well that ends well, and I hope it does.
Monday, October 13, 2008
This is the first experience we've had in setting up or even being acquainted with a blog. I have no idea if this is the right way or I goofed someway. Anyway, we'll try our best to get it going. We'll see. We really have very little time to do this, but we'll post an entry now and then. If I can figure it out, maybe some photos too. The times are going to goofed up because it post the entries in Utah time rather than Swiss time. We are about 8 hours ahead of you. It is now 11:08 p.m. here.
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